Enter the Equals
by The First Gokun
Summary: ECQA, or the equals, a new team at Beacon made up of a deformed hunchback, a warped empress, a crooked heir and a broken leader. Follows their story as they find family in each other and cope with their neuroses... or succumb to them. Will contain blood, swearing, romance of the one sided and mutual variations and OC/canon interaction. Does not contain physics.
1. First Day

**The story of an OC group that I just wanted to toy around with. Appearances by the rest of the RWBY cast are guaranteed and frequent (after all, they tend to be the center of attention)**

**Some blood and stuff, cursing, underage drinking, violence and romance of both the one sided and mutual varieties between both OCs and canon characters.**

* * *

Ozpin sat in his office musing over a video feed. Some exceptional students had joined the Academy this year, and reviewing the performances of each of them was one of his favorite pasttimes. He also enjoyed creating remixes of particularly interesting footage and uploading them to YouTube. This particular clip was taken from the viewpoint of a common ruffian, shakily recording what could only be described as a massacre.

The location was a gray and barren cityscape. In the middle of an abandoned street there was a literal pile of bodies, around which gathered a group of delinquent gang members. They were cheering on a figure perched atop the throne of bloody and battered police officers and enforcement robots. She turned and raised a middle finger to the camera, smiling wildly. In her other hand she held the face of a just about stirring officer. A subtle twitching of his left arm cued her into the state of her quarry and she lifted him with one arm and tightened her grip. He screamed and clutched at his face until he finally went limp. Satisfied, she dropped him onto the pile and thrust up both arms, shouting "Are you not entertained?"

Cheers sounded from her followers and spectators as she gestured to the camera once more, mouthing the words: 'You're next.'

* * *

The idle hum of chit chat went up as students disembarked from the airships, flooding through the gates of Beacon and spilling down the main avenue. All sorts of figures were accepted into Beacon, and all shapes, sizes and colors of human or faunus were engaged in a friendly intermingling ritual on their new territory, walking around, getting a feel for the Academy, meeting new people. In this sea of turbulent characters and meandering students, one hooded figure cut through the crowd like an arrow, briskly walking straight towards his destination. He adjusted his scarf, tightening it further.

An explosion sounded behind him, covering a certain red cloaked girl in ash and invoking the wrath of another girl dressed all in white. He smiled.

This school was interesting already.

* * *

The giant's footsteps were heavy and his stride was long. One set of knuckles trailed on the airship ramp as he walked, silencing the conversations of nearby students with his imposing presence. Squaring his frame in the gate, he placed his hands on his hips and gazed out towards Beacon tower. Something about its shape, its height reminded him of the church. The black and blue robes with gold inlay fluttered in the wind like a flag secured to his massive stature.

He shrugged his lopsided shoulders and strolled along, oblivious to the attention he was attracting. It was not only his stature that was intimidating, but the four rocket launchers perched on his hunched back, darting back and forth independently as if searching for a victim.

Humming his favorite hymn, the giant searched for a kindred spirit to strike up conversation with.

* * *

The black trenchcoat and boots were suspicious, no doubt about it. His long white hair made him a prime candidate for antagonistic achievement. The gold rimmed sunglasses with the words Ray Bam written in cursive in the top left were just pushing it. His confident swagger and rich kid attitude may as well have been a sign from Monty Oum, saying "Hello, main villain material here!"

But it was definitely the eyes that did it. The twin orbs concealed behind those lenses. They emanated intrigue and evil, making one unlucky classmate recoil in terror at a glimpse of them.

He chuckled to himself. "Just my luck."

Main avenue was just a tad too long with a tad too many people staring for his liking.

* * *

Her entrance was grand, almost professionally staged. A quick tuck and roll down the ramp into a flying leap from crouching position attracted the attention of many a passerby, much to the girl's delight. She smiled wide, basking in their gazes, absorbing their interest.

The sparkle of lime green braces shone in the sun. She adjusted her wide rimmed glasses and dusted off the black vest. Patting dirt off her green smock dress and black stockings, she shook her head from side to side to check that her pigtails were still attached.

The girl skipped to the entrance ceremony, content with her filling of limelight for the moment.

* * *

The auditorium was brimming with students funneling in through the towering front doors. The sunglasses wearing boy remarked at the clamor, almost stumbling as he stepped into the bubble of commotion.

'Maybe this was a bad idea after all. Should've started slower for first contact.' Nevertheless the concept excited him, meeting so many children for the first time in years. He felt as if he had been thrown into a tank of sharks, the room burning with hair raisingly powerful auras.

"Excuse me."

Hearing the voice from above, the white haired boy turned upwards to face the giant as he had heard was socially appropriate. He smiled wide, almost a little too wide to look acceptable. The giant merely returned it as if it were nothing. This was the first person to respond amiably despite his appearance, and he was glad to receive an answer for once.

"Yes?"

"I'm just rather new around here and looking to make a friend."

"I'd say we're all new to Beacon, but I'd be delighted to make your acquaintance." He held out a hand, which the hulking boy enclosed in his enormous hands and shook gladly. Sunglasses boy merely raised an eyebrow at how coarse his hands were.

"What would your name happen to be, Mr. Goliath?"

He cocked his head at the nickname, but obliged, "My adopted father dubbed me Quincy Modo, because I was his fifth. And you?"

"My name is Eido. Eido Pitch."

"Somehow your name seems familiar."

Eido shook his hands, waving away the suspicion. "You must be mistaken… Quincy." He tried the name tentatively, unfamiliar with using the first names of others. The concept made him grin again, more of a leer really. He picked up the audible shudders of some onlookers.

"Shall we discuss weaponry?"

"Gladly," Quincy beamed.

* * *

As a white haired man in a suit ('Just like me,' Eido remarked) stepped onto stage the crowd hushed, waiting expectantly. He readied the microphone, then began:

"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction."

At this some of the students turned to each other and whispered confusion. The hooded figure marvelled at the frankness of the who he knew as Headmaster Ozpin. The man knew how to dole out harsh truths.

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." Then Ozpin walked off stage, leaving a female teacher to step up to the mic.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

* * *

The first night at Beacon was… interesting to say the least. All students were forced to sleep in the same room on the floor, sparking some discontent amongst some of the girls. The hooded boy disrobed very privately in a corner, removing his red scarf and hoodie very subtly. Underneath was a somewhat underfed figure, lean and muscled but remarkably pale, and a mess of dirty black hair casting shadows over his face. He replaced the missing hood by wrapping a red blanket around his head as a cloak and fell asleep promptly on his mattress.

Eido was much more confident, making a little show of revealing his well toned body. He kept his sunglasses on but whipped off the hair tie, letting his long white hair cascade down his shoulders. He heard the excited gasps of a few girls as he tossed his trenchcoat to Quincy, who wore a more plain blue robe, and began work on his white dress shirt. The larger man shook his head gently.

"Pride and vanity are your enemies, Eido. You should not let them consume you," he mused, quoting his pious adoptee.

"And I mustn't lead young women to temptation, am I right?" the other boy chuckled, finishing his buttons and whipping off the shirt in one smooth, beautiful motion. He reached for his belt before Quincy hurriedly picked him up and hoisted him onto Eido's mat before he could go any further.

"Unhand me you ruffian!" protested Eido in a silly accent, before collapsing into a giggling fit.

"Did I not warn you of the dangers of alcoholism?" continued Quincy. "You had what, twelve beers?"

"And counting!"

"How did you even manage this," he inquired, exasperated.

"Met this blonde haired girl, and GOOD GOD can she hold her drink! I don't even think she was buzzed after the thirteenth," he hiccupped.

"I couldn't believe you were such a lightweight," spoke the aforementioned blonde, strolling over from the side the girls had designated as their own, past the line they had laid with a long rope draped from one end of the ballroom to the other. "You had confidence, but that was it."

Quincy turned to her. "And you would happen to be?"

"Yang Xiao Long, the greatest big sister alive." She was dressed in an orange tanktop and black hotpants. She staggered her stance and placed a hand on her hip. "And you?"

They went through their introductions and Quincy begged her not to tempt Eido into underage drinking, to which she replied "Awww, but he's so much fun to screw around with. When you get past the evil face and low tolerance he's a great drinking partner."

"Like I said, I don't think it would be wise to indulge in the pleasures of alcohol right before the big initiation tomorrow."

She gave a flippant "Pssch" and bravely declared, "Doesn't matter how hung over I am, nothing stands in the way of the dragoness. I can blow through whatever test they can come up with no problem. Speaking of blowing through..." She gestured to Quincy's weapons.

"Are you interested in my armaments?"

"Nah, thats more my sister's thing. They're scary as hell though."

He smiled warmly. "I don't think so. These are good strong tools that I've carried since I was working the fields near the church."

"Explains why you're so huge I guess," she muttered, looking him over once again. She still had yet to comment on his deformities, which overjoyed Quincy to no end. "But why are they letting you hold onto those? Wait, scratch that, why are you still carrying them? Doesn't that way a ton?"

"I've gotten rather used to carrying them. It's actually rather comforting to hold onto them. However," he continued, "I can fold them up if they bother you." At this, the barrels stopped their incessant swiveling and lay flat on his back like a large metal backpack.

"No need to do that. Anyway, I have to go meet up with my little sister now. Onee-chan's gotta do what onee-chan's gotta do." She gave Eido a little gesture that said 'Call me' and tossed him a drink. He appeared unaware and fumbled the bottle a little, cradling it in his arms as she walked away to rejoin the girl's side.

"What a woman."

"Indeed," nodded the giant as he swiftly plucked the booze from Eido's hands. "Did you feel her aura?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty perceptive about those kinds of things. She must be crazy strong."

Quincy smiled. "Looks like the other students are an exceptional bunch. We shouldn't be left behind."

* * *

In a lime green tanktop and pajama pants, a young girl melded her way naturally into the conversation of the others. She didn't know their names or their backgrounds, but once she joined the group all eyes naturally shifted to her and accepted her. She prided herself in being able to make friends/thralls/supporters wherever she went, and what was essentially a giant slumber party full of 17 year olds (with a few exceptions) acted as a perfect opportunity to establish herself as the streetwise girl, the woman who knew and got along with everyone.

Approaching her third group for the night, a motley crew consisting of four girls in red, white, black and yellow themed sleepwear, she waved for their attention and smiled wide to reveal those same green braces.

"Yo! I'm Cammo!"

"What in the world is going on over here? Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep? " the white haired girl complained. Cammo recognized her instantly as Weiss Schnee, heir to The Schnee Dust Company. She locked eyes with an unknown blonde girl and they simultaneously shouted "Oh, not you again!"

"And~ I'm going." Best not to meet them while they're fighting, lest she be associated with a bad memory. Giving a little hmph of indignity, she turned and sauntered off to complete her conquest of the relatively peaceful girls.

* * *

In the middle of the night a boy jolted upright, shivering, sweat pouring off of him in buckets. He took note of the other sleeping inhabitants and got up slowly, treading carefully between a sea of male bodies so as not to awaken anyone. It was too hot, too cramped for him to rest peacfully. Feeling other living beings so close was playing tricks on his mind, on his body. He would adjourn to a cooler place.

Where could he go? There was a balcony nearby, but that was far too obvious, and someone might wake up by chance and notice him. Draping his scarf over his shoulders to preserve his modesty, though still without a shirt, he made his way to the rooftops. He climbed the stairs barefoot, making as little noise as possible. Who knew what would happen if he was caught by the teachers so late. He wasn't so fearful of Ozpin, but the stern looking teacher who stood beside the headmaster was far more threatening than any Grimm he had faced before.

The academy was huge and expansive, with long twisting halls, but he couldn't afford to lose his way here. He followed what he guessed was the smell of fresh air, relying on his nose. A sudden right turn and he could see moonlight up ahead. Through this door...

He stopped as the hinges creaked and rushed back to duck behind the corner. With the utmost of caution he peeked around the corner, taking care not to reveal himself. Framed in the doorway was a figure dressed in what seemed to be a short black yukata or similar garment. The light of the stars shimmered through her long dark hair, lighting up a halo around her face. His eyes widened.

She twitched. The slightest movement of the bow on her head. She turned abruptly to stare at the corner where he was hiding and drew in a long sniff.

But he was long gone. By the time she returned to the ballroom he had repositioned himself on his mat, under his blanket, his heart pounding like a marching band snare drum. If she knew he had seen, she didn't let it show.

* * *

**In the timeline, this chapter covers the 2nd and 3rd episodes of the original RWBY series.**

**I say this because I will be sticking to canon as much as possible, essentially making this the offscreen antics of the RWBY cast and OCs without disrupting the base plot line. Hopefully any alterations I make to the canon characters won't mess up their personalities too bad (i.e. Yang smuggling in booze) and lead to something interesting in the very least.**


	2. Initiation

**This chapter addresses the events that take place between the 4th and 5th episodes. I don't own RWBY and all that, or my writing would be better.**

* * *

The wake up call was rather abrupt. Eido stirred, glasses still resting on the bridge of his nose, at the sound of rustling blankets. He sat up, only to hear the movement stop. It was rather early in the morning to be getting up, and he was puzzled as to why anyone would be so quick to rise.

"You're up early," Eido yawned, taking time to stretch before hoisting himself to his feet and reaching for his dress shirt. He threw it on haphazardly, leaving the buttons open and proceeding to carry out his morning routine. Boots, then pants. Wait. Pants first. He stepped around the huge sleeping form of Quincy and made his way to the bathrooms, carrying toothbrush and toothpaste with him.

"I was hoping to get a head start before the others," muttered the smaller boy under his voice, who had rewrapped himself in the blanket and waited for Eido to leave the ballroom before getting dressed.

"What's wrong, can't show your body to the others? Afraid the girls will laugh?" Eido inquired as he heard the other boy enter the bathroom. The acoustics were a bit strong for his liking, and he winced before lowering his voice to continue. "You don't have to worry about me, friend. I won't ever mock your appearance."

"Really," he replied flatly. Eido turned on the faucet and dipped his mouth underneath to gargle and spit.

"Really."

The hooded figure rinsed and spit, not taking the time to wash his face before exiting and briskly heading to the cafeteria.

"Hey, hey, wait up!" called Eido before realizing his mistake. Quincy's lopsided eyebrows scrunched together as he groaned and rolled onto his face. Due to the weapon on his back he had to sleep on one side.

Eido silently tiptoed around the awakening giant to snatch the rest of his outfit, then chase after the scarf boy. When he finally caught up to him, they were at the junction which led to the locker rooms. The white haired boy raised his eyebrows as his companion's footsteps took a different route straight to the food court.

"You don't need to pick up your weapons?"

"Ummm..." stammered the hooded figure. "No, no I don't. I prefer to keep them on my person at all times."

Eido smiled. "What a coincidence, so do I."

"..."

"What's your name, friend?"

The boy was silent for a bit, then replied "Ahab. Last name Omobi."

"Nice name. I'm Eido Pitch."

"Oh, I've heard of you," Ahab said, now a little more open. "You're the heir to the Pitch Corporations, the cutting edge technological empire."

The heir sighed, slumping forward a little. "That I am. But don't think much of it, I'm not interested in the family name. I just want to be taken a little more lightly."

Ahab chuckled a little. "If you want, I could make light of you."

"Not made light of, taken lightly. Just don't take me too seriously."

"I promise you, that is not going to happen."

Eido grinned his maniacal grin again, glad to have coaxed Ahab out of his shell a little.

"What are you doing?"

"Hmm?"

"That smile. Why are you smiling like that?"

"Oh, I'm just pleased with myself."

"Maybe you should stop. Has anyone ever told you you have the smile of a mass murderer?"

He laughed out loud and ran his fingers through his hair, fixing it back with a hair tie. "I haven't had much practice."

"That can't possibly be it. Even blind people can smile without ever having seen it before. It's a natural reflex."

"Oh." Eido finished off the buttons on his shirt and slipped his arms into the trenchcoat. "Well, I guess my facial expressions are a little different from yours. What are you getting for breakfast, by the way?"

"I think they said something about pancakes, but I wasn't really paying attention."

* * *

When Quincy awoke, the ballroom was buzzing with life. Students were rolling up their sleeping bags, fixing their makeup and putting on their clothes. The girls all retreated to the bathrooms to change while the boys took possession of the entire ballroom, only a rare few hiding themselves from the female side. The giant saw Eido's sleeping bag lying next to him with no white haired boy in sight and took it upon himself to take care of cleaning up for the two of them. He hummed a morning hymn as he donned his normal robes and fixed his hygiene, taking time to shave off any stubble that had grown in the night. Then he said a quick prayer and set off towards the food courts.

The scent of pancakes wafted towards him, and he took a look around to appreciate the clear day. Gazing into the distance, he didn't notice her until she tugged on his sleeve impatiently.

He turned and looked down at her, a petite girl all in green. To his dismay she recoiled, a flash of fear in her eyes, upon seeing his face. However, she pushed her shock aside and held out her hand.

"Yo! I'm Cammo!"

"Good morning, Ms. Cammo. I am Quincy Modo." He smiled, and enveloped her hand in his own to shake.

"Oh, you're a stickler for last names, eh? Fine. My full name is Cammo Deuce."

"Pleased to meet you, Ms. Deuce," he corrected himself. The two began walking again.

"No need to be so polite, I just wanted to get to know everyone's names while I'm here."

"That's a good idea. I'm afraid I haven't been able to get anyone's name yet apart from two other rambunctious students. Most of them seem to be at a loss for words when we meet."

* * *

Cammo was fighting the urge to make a sarcastic remark. The giant standing before her was so genuine she wanted to throw up, as if his face wasn't enough. She examined him for potential, but found little other than his prominent musculature and strong square chin. He was entirely asymmetrical, a deformed human being who seemed like he would tip over at any time under his own weight.

But beyond his appearance, the way he smiled and spoke was disgustingly pure. She couldn't stand people like him, and on top of that he was wearing church robes. 'How old fashioned,' she thought as she recalled all the times her mother had tried to convince her to go to church. Traditions like that should be dead and gone, there was no point to them.

Still, her crusade for social omniscience continues.

"I don't see the point in being so rude based on appearance. You seem like a wonderful person."

She watched in amusement as his faced brightened. Gullible moron.

"And you too seem to be very kind," he said as they came to the junction. "Ah, it seems we must part ways."

"Sure, see ya Quincy."

They both turned towards the food courts.

"You are not going to retrieve your weapons first?"

"No, you?"

He gestured to his back, and the 'backpack' sprung to life, rocket launchers swiveling like four separate snake heads.

"Oh." Maybe he did have some potential.

* * *

The intercom crackled to life, and the voice of the female teacher from the previous day (who he had discovered was named Glynda Goodwitch) rang throughout the entire campus. "Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

"Beacon Cliff?" remarked Eido. "What are they planning for initiation, a flight test?"

"I hardly think so," muttered Ahab, much quieter now that there were other students around. Eido had quickly discovered that the smaller boy had simple case of social anxiety and withdrew into several layers of clothing as a safety measure. The scarf was drawn tight and the hood pulled down low so that his face was hidden from sight.

"Let's get going. I really want to see what happens on the cliff."

"Maybe they'll push us off and read our entrails." Ahab also had a macabre sense of humor. The heir laughed along all the same, glad to have someone to talk to.

"No way, they would never do anything to endanger their students right off the bat."

* * *

Eido abandoned this thought when he saw the first student get launched into the air.

The entire class of first-years was standing on a row of spring loaded launchpads facing the Emerald Forest. One after the other they flew into the sky and came down through the canopy.

"Wait, seriously? We're seriously doing this?"

"WOOOOO-HOOOOO~" yelled Yang as she snapped on a pair of aviator sunglasses and rocketed off like a superhero.

"So what exactly is the landing strategYYYYYYYYYY~" cried a blonde haired boy, catapulting into the cloud of other kids.

"Well, I'm glad at least one other person is questioning this," Eido grumbled, before blasting off himself, followed by a not-so-aerodynamic Quincy.

Quincy smiled as he flew through the air. "So this is what it feels like to be an angel," he wondered.

The landing strategy was straightforward in his mind. He turned on his semblance and plummeted to the earth as fast as possible, a ton of muscle and metal turning into a veritable comet above the forest. Right before hitting the tree line he switched his semblance off and fired all four dust rockets at the ground, actually bouncing upwards slightly with the explosive force below him. He then dropped onto a tree, which cracked under his weight and brought him down to the forest floor with a thud. He stood up with nothing but a few scratches, which he began healing immediately with his aura. He had survived worse falls than that.

Cammo was plummeting toward the ground when she caught a tree branch and gripped it hard, almost pulling her arm out of her socket. When her hold didn't break the branch did, so she grabbed another which promptly splintered to pieces. This continued on for some time until she had decelerated enough to drop to the underbrush unscathed, her arm strained but in otherwise perfect condition. Thank god for her unbreakable clutch or she would have been a splotch of lime green on the face of the earth.

Eido was sure that he had the worst luck of all of them. He didn't have any strong recoil weapons nor did he have any blade to sink into a tree trunk and slow him down. He took off his shades and separated the two halves, the lenses spinning and expanding into circular, tinted shields. Gripping them as tightly as possible, he struck the first tree's upper leaves-

-and glided across. It was almost like surfing on the forest. He thanked Lord Monty that physics didn't apply to him and that he was coming down at a rather shallow angle. After gliding for a bit he finally slowed down enough to fall into the branches of the tree at a nonlethal speed, albeit painfully. After getting his bearings he worked his way slowly down the trunk, finally reaching the base.

He wondered which way was north, having no sense of direction. Snapping his lenses back together, he took a step from the tree trunk. He heard a squish underneath his foot.

Something soft and squishy and warm was under his boot heel.

Eido jumped back suddenly. Sniffing the air, he now noticed a ferrous smell on the wind. Blood.

He knelt down and felt around, searching for something to identify the body. He felt a soft, fluffy material.

A scarf, painted redder than it was ever intended to be.

"Ahab?" he breathed, his voice quivering. "You... didn't make it?"

"What are you talking about, Eido?"

Eido whirled towards the sound of the voice, pulling the boy into a hug.

"HOLY CRAP, AHAB!" he shouted. "DON'T EVER SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!"

Ahab could only stare at the heir with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Does this mean we're partners?"

Eido could only smile his creepy smile, thanking the heavens for the second time in the span of five minutes, this time for the safety of his new partner. "I believe so, yes!" Then he remembered.

"Oh right, Ahab, you have to see this! I found a dead body, and I thought it was-"

Gone. The squishy substance was gone.

"Huh? Oh, you found my scarf." Ahab took the completely dry, blood free garment from Eido's hands and wrapped it around his face.

Had he imagined the whole thing? Eido shook his head, no, impossible. It wasn't a dream.

He could still smell the blood.

* * *

Cammo had been walking northwards for a good fifteen minutes without encountering anyone. Nobody at all. The lack of attention was starting to take a toll on her physical state, making her slow and sluggish. Her arms felt heavy. Breathing was becoming increasingly difficult. Her vision blurred and began to fade...

"Excuse me?"

She snapped up out of her stupor and turned to face the low, mellow voice. Standing behind her was the giant Quincy Modo.

"Oh, Quincy!" Overjoyed at the sight of a human being, no matter how mangled, she rushed over to grab his arm. "What a surprise!"

"Indeed," he rumbled. "It would seem that we are partners from now on as well."

"Oh." She had forgotten the rule. Their eyes hadn't really met, had they? It was difficult to imagine, seeing the several feet difference in height. She couldn't be stuck with this church boy for four years. He was too pure, too huge, too attention grabbing. She might even starve just standing next to him from how much he stole the show.

"Well, did you really look into my eyes? Are you sure?" she asked, keeping her head down so as not to accidentally meet his gaze.

"Yes, when you turned around I had a very clear view of your eyes."

"What color were they?"

"Lime green."

Shit.

"Ms. Deuce," he spoke, lowering his voice and kneeling down to her level. "I don't think it's wise to lie about what happens in this forest. Remember, the headmaster said that we would be monitored throughout our examination."

He was right. Infuriatingly holy and infuriatingly observant as well. This was going to be hell.

"Fine, can't be helped. I was just worried that you might want to be partners with someone of your skill caliber."

Quincy frowned. "You don't need to lie to me, Ms. Deuce. I know you do not want to be my partner. In fact, I've already met a few other students, but they assumed I was a Grimm and ran. If my appearance bothers you, just tell me."

She dropped her smile and shrugged. "Whatever. Though it's not your appearance that bothers me, so don't worry about it."

He beamed. Her first thought was 'Ugh, too bright.'

"I'm just a little grumpy from walking in the forest for fifteen minutes, anyway."

"I knew you were tired. Would you like to take a seat?" he suggested.

"Here? No thank you."

"No, no," he said, and gestured to a spot on his back, right above the harness supporting his arsenal.

She smiled. That would certainly attract a couple more gazes. Perhaps this was the most helpful partner she could have met.

In the coming years, she would come to be known as the empress from the way she rode into battle.

* * *

**Eido's sunglasses are a rather weird weapon to visualize. Essentially, his lenses have multiple layers and when he separates the two halves the layers come apart and fan out around the temples (glasses terminology for the side handle bits) which turn into handles for the shields. The glasses are like aviators so the shields are around the size of plates. They're only meant to redirect force, never take it head on (which is why I opted for the awkward surfing bit, because otherwise that would be 1 dead OC). BTW, their weapon name is Diplomatic Immunity.  
**

**I'll give more indepth explanations of the weapons if it helps visualization. Hope you liked the little gory bit, or at least could tolerate it, but there's a reason I couldn't go into further detail *wink wink*  
**

**As a side note, what is an acceptable chapter length? I try at least 2000 words, but I've seen some writers who call 3000 'a little short'.**


	3. Formation

**This chapter addresses the events that take place between the 6th and 8th episodes. I don't own RWBY and all that, or my writing would be better.**

* * *

The forest was dense with both foliage and monsters. Ahab and Eido were both stalking through the underbrush carefully, making horrible time despite not having encountered a single Grimm yet.

"So why are we not going the open way, guns ablazing?" Eido inquired.

"I don't want to waste my aura in this forest just yet. We're more or less guaranteed to be fighting bigger monsters the closer we get to the ruins."

"Aw c'mon~" whined the taller boy, kicking up a few stray leaves. "I want to know what you're like in action, partner."

"And me you," replied Ahab. "So if you want to walk in the open and attract Grimm, you can do that. I'll sit back and watch."

"Well, that's your prerogative." Eido stepped into the clearing and began skipping along at a brisk pace. Ahab scrambled to keep up.

"Hey, hold on! I can't be stealthy like this!"

Eido turned back and stuck out his tongue, sporting his playfully murderous grin. "You better run as fast as your little legs can carry you or I might just leave you behind!"

The heir's heel caught a root and he fell backwards, arching his spine and nailing the top of his head perfectly. The shorter boy chuckled quietly, which only made Eido smile wider. He was glad to be making his friend laugh, seeing how the hooded boy was always silent around others. They shared a good giggle and amiably walked down a clearer path together, only stopping when interrupted by the howling of Beowolves.

"I knew it," muttered Ahab.

* * *

Quincy brought down his sledgehammer on the Beowolf's skull, finishing the last one and mechashifting his weapon back into a rocket launcher before strapping it onto his harness. Cammo gaped at the carnage.

"You should've told me about your skill, we would've made much better time."

Quincy smiled and gestured for her to climb back on his hump. She faux curtsied and climbed aboard. "I don't like to brag about this power. Pride is the deadliest sin."

"Sure, sure, I'm going to hell. Nothing I haven't heard before." She grabbed his bald cranium and steered him towards their destination. "Now, onwards!"

He obliged. "You have yet to show me your weapon, Ms. Deuce."

"Well, duh. Why should I bother wasting my energy when you can ace whole groups of Beowolves just like that?"

"Hard work is its own reward."

"Yeah, right," she snorted. "The important thing is getting recognition for your hard work."

* * *

"Allow me to handle this one," said Eido in his most heroic voice possible. It sounded like the speech of an evil genius. "You can sit back and watch, as you said."

"Suit yourself."

Eido spun off his sunglasses to deflect a charging Grimm's claws, and Ahab gasped. Beneath the dark lenses were two orbs of red metal, gleaming in the sunlight.

"You're... blind?"

The heir grinned and leaned back to let another Beowolf scrape harmlessly across Diplomatic Immunity. "Oh, I didn't tell you?"

"Well, no, but I think that's something you should make a big deal out of."

"Never!" he shouted, feigning shock. "I've totally come to terms with it. Besides, I can hear, smell and feel the world with godly control. Losing my sight has given me power in all my other senses." Eido allowed a third strike to ring off of his shields before smashing them down on its jaws with an aura enhanced attack, stunning and dropping it to the forest floor and jumping on top of its head, pressing it into the dirt.

"Well, your fighting skills and general interaction with human beings seems unfazed. How do you even make your way around Beacon?"

"Echolocation," came the reply as Eido jumped over an incoming attack and added another Beowolf to the growing pile of groggy Grimm beneath his feet.

"No, really."

"Okay, its more of an intuition. Before I enter society I first need to get a feel for the place beforehand. For example, last night I got up to trace every inch of campus with my hands."

"I'm surprised they let you do that."

"The headmaster is aware of my condition," explained Eido, sliding past the final lunging monster and grunting as he delivered a shield strike to its core. "He understands that I may need some extra time to prepare for anything. If I recall, they plan to give me specialized tests and allow dictation for my writing assignments. Beacon is an interesting place, is it not?"

Ahab surveyed the damage Eido had caused. The Grimm at the bottom of the pile seemed to be stirring; of course, some minor blunt force trauma isn't going to finish a rampaging Beowolf. Drawing his weapon, he ran each monster through the head systematically.

"What's with the blood?"

"Huh?" wondered Ahab as he applied the final coup de grace.

"Every time you use your weapons I can smell blood in the air. Is that part of the mechanism?"

Ahab grinned. "You can say that. I'll clue you in to a little secret."

Eido drew close, exaggeratedly cupping his ear. The smaller boy chuckled at his goofy partner.

"My weapons," he whispered, "are inside my body."

Eido drew a long, loud gasp and clutched his heart sarcastically. "Oh my Ahab, if you're so proud of yourself down there you could have just said so." He snickered as the hooded hunter thumped him on the arm.

* * *

Due to Ahab's careful planning and Eido's keen senses, the rest of the trip through the forest was much swifter and still quite uneventful.

"Ah, I can see the ruins!" Eido called from atop a hill.

"That wasn't funny the first time, and it isn't funny now." Eido collapsed into giggles. How could such a serious looking guy be such a child?

"I'm totally serious this time. We've come to a big clearing, I can feel it in the wind."

Ahab came to the crest of the mound and found that his partner had been telling the truth. A temple lay in the middle of an open grassy area, adorned with several small pillars upon which sat white and black chess pieces.

"Interesting design choice."

"Yeah, I know right?" laughed the heir. Ever since the revelation that he was blind it had been nonstop vision jokes the entire way. Not all of them were horrible, of course, but it was getting unbearable.

"Well would you look at that, there are others who took as long as we did to get here."

"Only because you insisted on being 'stealthy'."

* * *

From her vantage point, Cammo surveyed her options. Many of the pieces were already missing, what with how Quincy attracted every monster within a fifty foot radius. Before her were black rooks, black knights, white bishops and black and white pawns.

"No kings or queens, huh."

"Which piece would you prefer, Ms. Deuce?" The giant amiably gestured to the available choices.

"Well, we have to get a black piece, that's for sure. Black goes with everything, you know? It matches my vest and such."

"I would have preferred the bishop myself, but a pawn is fine too." He shrugged, causing her to lose her balance for a second before settling.

"Who said we were taking a pawn? Aren't those the expendable, dime a dozen pieces?"

"How would I know? I never learned how to play the fine art of chess."

"Yet somehow you know the names..." she muttered.

"In any case, this is a compromise. You want a black piece. I want a noble piece."

"Oh, come on, anything is better than a pawn. Isn't a rook noble enough for you?"

"There is nothing," and at this he straightened up and held one finger in the air, as if disciplining children, "more noble than honest, hard work."

"Nooooo~" she whined.

* * *

"Sounds like they're having fun," remarked Eido.

"Do we have to fight them?"

"Ozpin didn't say anything about fighting, just grabbing a relic and returning."

"Good," confirmed the hooded hunter, sliding down the slope. Eido followed behind him. "Is there any specific piece you want?"

"Huh?"

"The relics are chess pieces," he explained. "Any preferences as to which we take back?"

"I'd prefer a bishop if possible."

Ahab took one look at the shining white piece and shook his head. "Does a pawn work for you?"

"Sure, its not like I have any objections to these aesthetic things."

The two strolled onto the stone tile floor. "Can you even play chess? You know, what with your..."

"I can play blind, yes. If you need to know, I have an eidetic memory."

"Ah, now **that's** helpful information."

Eido grinned, proud of himself. He waved to the noisy partners and kept close behind Ahab.

* * *

"Is that..."

"Oh, I met that gentleman yesterday. His name is Eido Pitch."

Cammo's eyes widened. "Pitch? As in Pitch Corporations?"

"Really?" asked the giant innocently. "I don't know the name."

"Wait, which piece are they taking?"

Quincy glanced over in the direction of the hooded figure. "The black pawn."

"Quick, take the other one then!" Cammo hissed. "On a team with a Pitch, this will attract some attention." She licked her lips in anticipation of the staring crowds.

Quincy smiled as he gently picked up the black pawn. "He seemed like a nice fellow too."

"Those sunglasses, that evil face, its like he was born to stand out!"

* * *

Eido's eye twitched.

"Aren't you glad?" inquired Ahab, lowering his voice due to the presence of others. "You've made some new friends."

"The girl is pissing me off."

"She'll get to know you soon enough, and then you'll have a turn at pissing her off."

The heir grinned his huge, evil grin. "She's going to regret wanting to be my friend, isn't she."

"Yoohoo~" The girl riding the hunchback waved excitedly, the latter following suit. "How's it going you two?"

Ahab muttered something, drawing his scarf tight and averting his eyes. Well, the front of his hood anyway. Who knew where his eyes were inside that mass of clothing. Eido took the reigns of conversation from his partner.

"Pretty good. The exam was pretty easy, wasn't it?"

Cammo laughed along. "Oh, stop bragging. Swear to dust, we almost didn't make it out alive. I'm beat anyway."

Eido raised an eyebrow. "And that would be why you're riding your partner like a beast of burden."

"I don't mind," came the deep voice of the giant.

"Oh, Quincy! How great to see you again!"

"And you, Mr. Pitch."

"Please, call me Eido," he said, visibly irked. "Please."

* * *

"This can't be the end of the examination, right?" mumbled Ahab. "They haven't thrown anything huge at us just yet."

"I don't think they do that with first time students," began the heir, then stopped as he remembered that the professors had thrown them off a cliff with no warning whatsoever.

"Yeah, where's the last boss mob?" mused Cammo. Her musings were answered when a deep growling (not from Quincy's direction) rang throughout the clearing.

"That would be it."

Four large Ursa charged from all directions, each bearing unique markings and charging a single member of the group. Eido began the fight, charging forward with Diplomatic Immunity ready. He rolled to the side the huge Grimm and placed his weight into a strike against the beast's jaw, sending it stumbling to the right. Ahab received the primed kill and placed his palm against its exposed throat. There was a sound of the drawing and sheathing of metal and red exploded out of the top and bottom of the skull. The hooded boy then ducked underneath his own Grimm and placed both palms against its underbelly. The beast screeched in pain and swung at him, but he scampered out from between the monster's legs and allowed it to turn towards him slowly, two large crimson slits visible in its black fur.

Meanwhile, Cammo drew her own weapon and signaled for Quincy to begin the assault. She popped out her braces and mechashifted them into a large, beartraplike contraption.

"Bring it, Yogi!" she shouted, and charged her prize. It ducked down to catch her in its jaws, but was greeted by two well timed dust explosions from Quincy's armory. As he turned his attention to the beast lumbering his way, Cammo clamped the jaws of her weapon around the creature's muzzle, cracking its armor in the process. She flipped elegantly over the mountain of muscle, pulling its head back with a satisfying snap. With the Grimm bending over backwards in a compromising position, she separated the two halves into twin green knuckledusters and battered the dazed face of the beast.

Quincy swung one hammer over his shoulder, bringing it down on the Ursa. He unlocked a second hammer from his harness and began pounding away with the two of them at it's body like a marching band drummer. Drawing back for one decisive blow, he triggered a dust explosion which blew off the creature's armor and part of its back.

Ahab continued to dance around his quarry, cutting it deep and hard by simply pressing his hands against exposed areas. He made one final turn around the things neck before kicking the loosened head off of the body.

The battle was over. Each student looked at each other and raised their eyebrows, satisfied with their work.

"So, nice weapons you've got there," added Eido, his crimson eye sockets plainly visible. Cammo's jaw dropped; he just kept getting more and more interesting. But there was one more player who caught her eye.

What was the hooded boy's weapon? And why were his palms bleeding?

* * *

"Eido Pitch. Cammo Deuce. Quincy Modo. Ahab Omobi." Ahab grimaced as his picture appeared up on the screen above him without his hood and scarf.

"The four of you retrieved the black pawn pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team ECQA."

"Equals, huh?" chuckled the smaller boy. "What a theme for a team who chose the black pawns."

"Led by... Ahab Omobi!"

Ahab collapsed into a fit of coughing.

"Wait, what? Isn't the team leader supposed to be at the start of the acronym or something?"

"Hey, don't question it, partner," called Eido from the other side of the line. "You'll be amazing at it, right?"

"And aren't me and Eido supposed to be next to each other? What's with this team name?"

"They probably ran into a dead end with our acronym," muttered Cammo. "There's only so much they can do with four letters."

"Hold on, I'd like to call bullshit on this," hissed Ahab, suddenly aware of how loud he was being.

"Just get off stage before you start whining, kid," Cammo whispered through her teeth. She was smiling widely in front of the crowd, showing off her braces. Something told the new team leader that this girl wasn't exactly what she seemed.

* * *

**So more weapon explanations, because I feel it has to be done. Cammo is based off of Commodus (yknow, the roman emperor) and her weapon is named Nemean Grin. It has three forms: an undercover form as her braces, a boxing form as her knuckledusters and a heavy two handed form as her beartrap. The beartrap is very strong, strong enough to break most objects in her grip, and does not let go when she catches something. Other than that, fairly simple.**

**Quincy's weapon is Burden's Toll, which is made of four independently moving rocket launchers strapped to a harness on his back. The rocket launchers swivel according to his will, and can be snatched off of his back and mechashifted into heavy sledgehammers. The explosive part of the device is powered by a container full of Burn dust on the harness, which can also be utilized by the hammer form (though it needs to be recharged with dust after one explosion).**

**Ahab's weapon is my little secret for now, but hopefully Eido's blindness explains a couple of my writing choices in earlier chapters.**


	4. Introduction

**I really like writing dialogue between characters, especially in this story environment where there is little to no point to get across. Hope you enjoy!**

**This chapter takes place at the start of the 9th episode, for those of you who want to track how it lines up with canon.**

* * *

"We're sleeping... in one room?"

Cammo blinked once, then once again, as if trying to wake up from a horrible dream. Quincy also frowned at the concept, questioning the moral integrity of Beacon's administration.

Eido shrugged. "I don't see the problem with it."

Cammo whirled around, ready to wail on the leering boy before Ahab put a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look down on the shortest member of the team, growling a threatening "What do you want?"

"Calm down, Greenie," he soothed. "He's just joking, remember his condition."

The room was decorated sparsely, four beds set up in pairs on each side of the room. A flowing red curtain hung over a small, knee high bookshelf under the window which overlooked the campus below. The team's various luggage and ammenities had been brought up for them, and they surveyed each others' belongings with suspicion. With the exception of the giant, none of team ECQA's members were naturally trusting people.

Cammo had several large green packages to her name, all lime green like her outfit. Ahab had a single rucksack and little cardboard box, both brown and undecorated. Eido traveled like an heir should, with a pile of jet black suitcases almost as tall as his team leader. Quincy hoisted an appropriately enormous royal blue duffel bag onto his shoulder and sat crosslegged on the floor (still managing to be slightly taller than Ahab with his hunched back).

"Well, shall we decide on positions?"

"Wait, this won't work. Sleeping in the same room with three guys, I mean."

"I wouldn't worry about it if I were you," advised Eido. "Our leader is too shy, I'm blind and the big guy wouldn't handle a butterfly without consulting with it beforehand."

She nodded. "Sure, I agree with short stuff and mondo, but you're still a problem."

'That sounds really mean,' he thought.

"It's Modo, actually," corrected the giant in question.

"I mean, a blind guy isn't the same as an impotent guy. How do I know I'm not in danger of your wandering hands?" Cammo shivered in mock disgust.

"Rest assured, my conceited mademoiselle, I have no interest in your whiny voice," he laughed, lowering his lenses to give the impression of glaring daggers at her. The overall composition was rather terrifying. "I am a gentleman in search of only the finest voices in Remnant."

"A voice fetish?" Ahab cocked his head. "Who are you, Hachibei?"

"And my voice isn't whiny..."

"About the beds..?" Quincy urged.

"I'll just take the far right, I guess," Cammo said in a resigned manner.

"Then I'll take the far left!" interjected Ahab, his sleeve shooting into the air like a toddler in class.

"Rude," she tsked.

"I'll sleep next to Ahab," offered Eido, already protective of his best friend.

"Then I will take the bunk next to Ms. Deuce."

"Sure, whatever." In her slight shock and irritation at her teammates, she had forgotten to maintain her smiling facade. Quincy smiled gently at this. He had an uncanny ability when it came to reading the mood and responding to the emotions of others. He derived enjoyment from the sight of people living their lives honestly. Seeing her earnestly bickering with her roomies was somewhat refreshing in that way.

Ahab set to work on the legs of his bed, kneeling down and lifting the main frame somewhat to jostle the supports. Eido leaned over with worry. The notes of scraping wood and mechanical parts didn't sound very good to him.

"What... are you doing?"

"I sleep better closer to the ground," he answered flatly, wrenching a shining bolt indiscriminately from the lower left leg. "Do you think this would be important enough to hold on to?"

"I don't think they allow this kind of stuff..."

"I don't really see why not. When you're out in the wild on a mission, aren't you more likely to lay on the ground than lounge in a four poster bed?"

Cammo gestured at the pile of pieces Ahab was assembling. "Could you pass me the rest when you're done?"

"Eh?"

"Sure," Ahab mumbled. He finally popped the straight leg component off and hurled it at her head, letting her catch it deftly over her shoulder. The remaining lopsided mess slumped sadly onto the floor with a loud 'clunk'.

"The legs aren't attachments to the main frame. The whole thing is going to come apart if you do that."

"You're right," muttered the leader. "Oi, pass that part back. I'll just take the mattress out of the chassis and give you the framework." The leg whizzed through the air again, this time landing in Ahab's small, nimble fingers.

"Wait, but what is she going to use the frame for?" Eido began to consider the possibility that his team was a little **too** quirky.

"Isn't it obvious?" she drawled. "I'm going to raise my bed so I can look down on all of you. It's common sense to get to high ground for a tactical advantage."

"That's the wrong kind of tactical advantage..."

Quincy just hummed merrily and lifted Cammo's bedframe to allow Ahab to push her supports underneath.

"You know, for a team by the name Equals this bedroom doesn't seem too balanced."

"It's just a name, Eido," replied the green girl. Ahab nodded in rare agreement; these two shared all the wrong ideals.

"Cynical bastards..."

The bathroom door creaked open and Quincy lumbered through, carrying a mass of carefully folded cloth. The heir recognized the black and gold of the school uniform.

"Oh yeah, we're supposed to be getting ready for classes."

Eido stripped off his trenchcoat and grabbed a uniform from the stack Quincy had laid on his mattress. Cammo swiftly grabbed her skirt back from him.

"Heh heh, whoops."

She draped the clothing over her arm and crossed them, tapping her foot impatiently. Her eye was twitching and her fingers were scurrying about in irritation. The pervy heir, the creepy hood, the bleeding heart hulk, they were all getting on her nerves. They were interesting, sure, and would most definitely bring her more attention, but would it hurt for just one of her teammates to be relatable? She had seen several somewhat normal looking all girl teams at the initiation. Was this a sign from above that her crowd seeking ways would backfire in her face?

Quincy emerged, his uniform somewhat hanging over his deformities despite the modifications.

"They sure do make an effort to see to student needs," he remarked, raising his arms to show the quality of the stitching.

"Out of the way, big guy!" Cammo ducked underneath his outstretched pose and slammed the bathroom door into his back. He paid no heed to the blow, though the noise made him wince a bit.

Ahab gave a sigh of relief and began changing as quickly as possible. He had to finish before she got back. Allowing a girl to see his body would be... shameful. Right? Too much for his self consciousness to handle. Yes, speed would be best. He struggled into the snug jacket. Was this what it felt like to wear what everyone else wore?

Finishing off the buttons, he turned to the full length mirror propped against Cammo's mountain of lime paraphernalia, then shrinked away from his reflection and hissed. Too much of his skin was showing. His pale hands. His ivory white forehead almost shone through the mop of deep black, no matter how he tried to push it over his eyes.

"Do... do we have to wear this?"

Eido shrugged. "Dunno. I think they allow some customization to the uniform, but this is what everyone else wears. You'd attract attention if you didn't conform to the dress code," he said pointedly, referring to Ahab's aversion to being seen. "Everyone was wearing whatever they wanted at the initiation, but now that we're actual students we'll need to follow along with all the social customs of schoolchildren."

Ahab shivered. "How cruel teenage judgements are."

"Well, I don't see the problem with it," Eido repeated. Obviously this was going to become a thing with him. Not to mention he didn't need to check himself out in the mirror or worry about the appearances of others.

"Agreed. One might say that being unable to see is one of the greatest gifts in this world."

"Ignorance is bliss?"

"Fools!" burst out the freshly changed Cammo, still adorned with her green accessories, bracelets, et cetera. "Apologize to all the suffering blind people out in the world!"

"We're sincerely sorry," they said together without skipping a beat, bowing deeply.

"That was too good! Too openly sarcastic!"

"She's past the point of no return. Untruthful people never understand sincerity when they see it," whispered the heir.

"Say... you look different without the hoodie."

A shiver went up Ahab's spine.

"Oh really? How so?" Eido inquired, chuckling.

"Well, before you looked really stout and dwarf-like because of the baggy clothes. But now that I see you in a well fitted suit..." She leaned in to observe him closely, staring him down to the point where he collapsed on the floor and put his hands over his head. Reaching an epiphany, she snapped her fingers.

"You're a trap!"

...

"Eh?"

"Well, you don't take good care of your skin or hair, so minus points there, but besides that you look like a small, pitifully endowed girl," she stated very matter-of-factly.

"Oi! Wait a second!" he protested. "I'm not like you!"

"Don't blame me, blame the anime community. And hold it, what did you just say?"

Ahab crawled back to the discarded red and black hoodie. "I can't do it. I need to cover up."

"No, don't be that way!" Eido soothed. "You'll be fine! Picture them naked or something."

"I'm the one who's naked here! Seeing the others naked just makes me feel like something bad's going to happen!"

"Oooh, you naughty boy," teased the larger teen. Ahab pouted and turned away with a huff.

"Oh my god, you're more feminine than I thought. That was fucking adorable."

"Shut it, Greenie!"

"She's a tsundere! Rejoice!"

"I'm not gonna be taking shit from you, dammit!"

"Somehow, I feel like we just keep getting closer and closer," muttered Quincy dreamily.

* * *

"So Ahab switches gender when he takes his hood off or something..."

"Oi."

"So Ahab gets embarrassed without his protective shield," corrected Eido. "Quincy is a perfectly nice, yet misunderstood fellow. Cammo is a deceptive bitch." He turned to her for confirmation and received a disappointed yet yielding grunt in return. "And I'm blind."

"You also make pervy jokes."

"And you're rich."

"And have a voice fetish."

"Stop teaming up against me!" shouted the heir. "Anyway, I guess that's it for self introductions."

The team was sitting cross legged on the floor around Eido's Scroll. An alarm beeped, signalling the last minute warning for classes.

"A timer?"

"I can't read the clock casually like you guys. Either Braille or this. Besides, I get in trouble with time rather easily."

"Should we not be getting to classes now?" asked Quincy amiably.

"Sure, let's."

Team ECQA emerged from their dorm together in a sort of loose pack, Eido and Ahab conversing in the usual low tone the leader preferred. Cammo chatted energetically with Quincy, relaying her emotions of excitement over starting classes (especially with the multitude of other first years, who she would surely be milking for attention) as he nodded contentedly and offered an approving "mmm hmm" from time to time.

The beginning of the school year was upon the misfit teammates.

* * *

**The great part about writing for pleasure is that I can write long bantering sessions like this without needing to dive into and/or mess with the canon storyline. Hope you took some enjoyment in reading this and have a good day! (I'm needlessly happy after writing, I need to do some homework or something to bring my spirits back down to normal levels)**

**BTW, Cammo has an odd case of histrionic personality disorder, in case you were wondering.**


	5. Classes

**This chapter follows the events that take place in episodes 9 and 10 of the canon series.**

* * *

The day's classes were surprisingly normal, considering they had been launched through the air for their first examination. Standard teaching, standard note taking, standard, non-Hunter-like behaviour. Ahab took a glance around the final lecture hall and realized most teams were seated together, though there were some stragglers here and there. He opted for a seat in the back, followed by the heir with his signature crooked grin. The larger boy winced as he heard another student scootch her chair away (judging from weight, he assumed the scootcher was a lithe female).

"Oi. The smiling. Stop," whispered Ahab, which only made Eido smile wider. His leader was so adorable when embarrassed.

Quincy and Cammo, being a good student and attention seeking bitch respectively, sat near the front. The giant raised an eyebrow and leaned over slightly, as if motioning for her to climb onto his shoulders again, but she waved him aside. She didn't need the height to stand out here, especially after her recent successes today. She had firmly established herself as an intelligent and active student today, all according to plan. Classrooms were practically her element. Granted, a lecture hall was a bit of a challenge, but her desire to be seen and admired by all was unparalleled.

The lesson began when a portly man with a magnificent moustache strolled into the middle of the hall and began to monologue in a powerful voice straight from the diaphragm.

"Monsters! De~mons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha ha!"

So this was the kind of class they were expected to tolerate. 'Well, it is a school,' Eido thought. And he sounded like a jolly old fellow.

"Uhhhh... And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses..." He winked to the blonde girl, Yang, they had met on the first night at Beacon as she groaned. Cammo pouted.

"Just because she has bigger breasts..." She puffed out her chest and prepared to take the class in one fell swoop.

"Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world! That is what you are training to become. But first: A story. A tale of a young, handsome man... Me! When I was a boy..."

**So this was the kind of class they were expected to tolerate.** Suddenly the hope of ever leaving this classroom in any state of consciousness began to dwindle like a dying star. Ahab wistfully waved goodbye to his senses and collapsed onto the desk, enveloped by the folds of his hoodie. He began to breathe softly, a sort of diminutive whistling through his nose, and the sound slowly intoxicated his partner.

'Any minute now,' Cammo thought to herself, on the edge of her seat. 'An opportunity will present itself, and I'll jump on it like a plate full of pancakes. Any... minute...'

Soon, she too fell to the sopoforic affects of anticipation.

Finally, the less resolute members of team ECQA were hurriedly awakened by their teammates as Professor Port cleared his throat expectantly, demanding their attention once more.

"In the end, the Beowolf was no match for my _sheer_ tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!"

He took a little bow, and Eido felt inclined to oblige him with some empty clapping. Quincy joined in wholeheartedly, but the rest of the class remained silent.

"The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!" Ahab chuckled at the professor's naivety. If this was true, not a single student in the room was a true Huntsman, and many would never be.

"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

A white haired girl raised her hand swiftly and shouted "I do, sir!" She seemed to be rather pissed for some reason. Cammo gawked at her, impressed by her quickness to action. Even she hadn't seen the chance to volunteer there.

"Well then, let's find out. Step forward, and face your opponent!" He gestured to a rattling cage full of nothing but blackness, with two red eyes peering out.

Ahab raised his eyebrows. This school really did go all out in education. Monsters in the classroom? A weekly occurrence at the least.

* * *

After allowing for a brief period in which the white haired girl changed into her similarly white combat uniform, the class recommenced with her standing in front of the rows of desks. On the other side of the room was the Grimm cage, still rattling, rustling and ready for action.

Looking her up and down, Ahab felt almost blinded by the white on white on white of her outfit. Like sun reflecting off fresh snow, her costume made you want to avert your eyes for fear of searing your retinas.

"I don't really like her voice," Eido commented. Ah, what bliss, to be blind.

Under his overly critical eyes, however, Ahab did see the well trained stance and poise that came from extensive tutoring. This girl was undoubtedly a powerful fencer and huntress in general. She adjusted her hair and tried her best not to pay any attention to her cheering teammates.

"Look, Ahab. She's just like you."

"Shut it."

"Alright! Let the match begin!" exclaimed Professor Port, bringing down his axe on the cage door and freeing the beast. What charged out was a mass of hair and bone plates, with two enormous curved tusks that put even the professor's 'stache to shame. The Boarbatusk charged and the girl, Weiss, expertly deflected its advance. The two then rushed into each other, her weapon being trapped by the Grimm's tusks.

"Come on, Weiss! Show it who's boss!"

The shouting of her teammate distracted Weiss, and the Boarbatusk wrenched her weapon from her grip and flung it aside. Now the match devolved into a series of charges and dodges as the girl fought desperately to avoid becoming a stain on the classroom floor. She dove for an opening and slid to grab her sword off the ground.

"Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath!"

"Stop telling me what to do!

So they weren't the only dysfunctional team on campus. Good to know. It wasn't like the girl would ignore the advice anyway. She probably already knew from the start.

As the Boarbatusk leaped and rolled at Weiss like some enormous pinball, she activated a thin blue and white snowflake glyph in the monster's path, stopping it suddenly in its tracks. Eido smiled. So the students here knew a thing or two about dust manipulation too. She leaped into the air and used another dust circle, black this time, to plunge her blade into the trapped Grimm's exposed stomach, causing it to squeal and become still.

She wiped off her sweat, letting out a little sigh of relief as Professor Port commended her with his usual gallant tone. "Bravo! Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"

Cammo's jaw dropped and she clutched her hair in despair. "That's it? We watch one girl struggle against a pig and that's it?"

"Seems so," responded Quincy matter-of-factually. What a strange school, letting monsters into the classroom. "They must be confident in the student's abilities."

"Must be because she's some rich princess. I bet that's it! No way am I going to let her steal the spotlight! Just because she's the heiress of Schnee Corporations..."

Quincy scratched his head, ignorant to the name Schnee until this moment. "Now, now. Pride is one of the cardinal si-"

"Oh shut it with all that pure-pure bullcrap. You're making me sick."

"And your true self is showing, Cammo," whispered Eido over her shoulder. She reflexively smacked him across his cruel grin and sent him flailing over the desk behind him.

"Ah."

"Oh," muttered Ahab. "Come on, that was our last class."

"Really? Seems like time has just flown by."

"Only because the only interesting things happened during Port's class."

"Is this going to be a thing we do? Breaking the fourth wall?"

"What?"

"Never mind," Cammo sighed as she shook her head.

* * *

The dinner hall was crowded. Team ECQA had opted for chicken and rice plate combos, save Cammo, who had chosen the vegan dish of tofu, rice and broccoli.

"Watching your figure? _Good idea_," Eido whispered.

"Nope. This is just for today. Thought I'd try it out."

"How interesting. _Mindless sheep girl_."

"I heard both of those comments, and you will be sleeping outside tonight if you don't take them back." She gave him a targeted glare like a laser sight, apparently hitting a vital point as he suddenly felt chills. It wasn't Cammo herself who scared him, but a sudden indication of threat behind her. A positively menacing aura slithered towards him, and he prostrated himself immediately.

"My apologies, Ojou-sama." He bowed his head to the green figure across the table, allowing his white ponytail to droop into the sauce soaked chicken breast. She crossed her arms and looked over her nose at him.

"_Royal airhead_."

"Have your blankets in the hallway by the time I come up."

Eido sucked gravy off the ends of his hair. He knew exactly what he had felt then, and this drama queen was definitely incapable of producing such a killing intent. What was that unfamiliar cold aura he had felt?

* * *

Ahab dragged his own pillow out the doorway and threw it to the ground next to the sleeping heir, causing him to stir.

"Mmmn... Ahab?"

"I can't sleep in the same room as her, not of my own volition anyway."

"Is this the morning after? What did we do last night?"

"Stop playing groggy. You're stronger than that."

"Well jeez, if you wanted to sleep with me that badly you could have just asked."

Ahab blushed. "You seemed lonely out here. And it's not right for a team member to be alone like this. You want us to be like team RWBY?"

"They've probably already smoothed over their differences by now," Eido muttered, smiling gently. Ahab was really weak to these kinds of intimate moments, probably why he stayed away from the other students to the best of his ability. That red cheeked, mumbling mess was _not_ properly equipped to deal with modern society.

"Say Ahab. Tell me a little about your past."

...

"You're rather blunt, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am blind."

Ignoring the crappy pun, Ahab shrugged and let it spill. Best to get these out of the way while possible. "I grew up in the mountains with my father. We fought Grimm every day together, but I never even met another human being until I left home a year ago. I'll tell you, it was difficult adjusting to the fact there was a whole other gender," he laughed awkwardly.

That was where Eido felt it. The subtle stutter that clued him into the fact Ahab hadn't told the whole story yet. A stumbling in his heartbeat, a twitching of the muscles in his left arm, a slight aversion of the eyes. Those years in the mountains had most likely impaired his ability to hide his emotions, and he was making every rookie mistake there was to lying. Though he was blind, Eido saw through everyone. That was his gift.

"So that's where I got this kinda awkward attitude. Boring, right?"

"Right..." The heir smirked and simply leaned back, stretching and letting the blankets slip off to reveal his well developed upper body. Ahab looked away, unperturbed by his exhibitionist partner, and laid down on his pillow in the hallway, his heartbeat still pounding from what he thought was a clever deception.

They would leave this for another night. For now, they would sleep on the cold floor together, experiencing their first, albeit brief, in a series of revelations.

* * *

**So Ahab's awkwardness/tsundereness is just from a life of isolation. Not much happens here, just some more pleasure writing and moving along of the story I've already planned out. Of course, all is subject to change, so if you want to make a suggestion feel free to leave a review :D**


	6. Stories

**Very little canon in this chapter, but it takes place on their fourth night as a team.**

* * *

Ozpin was seated in front of his tiny monitor in the ridiculously large head office, the clock face behind him providing a view of the evening sun skirting over the horizon. He never used all the space he was given, choosing to remain hunched very conservatively over the glossy wooden desk. Ozpin had strange decorating tastes like that.

"Someday you're going to hurt your back like that," uttered Goodwitch under her breath.

"Mmm?" called the headmaster, leaning back and turning off his holographic monitor, but she stood to attention silently.

"Ah, Glynda. Good of you to hurry over so soon."

A twinge of anger graced her calm features. He was acting far too carefree for her to tolerate. Not after she had run all the way here...

"Headmaster, what did you call me over for?" she asked impatiently. Unlike Ozpin, she was always efficient and on task. "Is there a problem with one of the students?"

"Well, it's not so important as that..." he sighed. "And at the same time, it's as important as it gets."

His vagueness irked Goodwitch, and she glared at him.

"Just watch this footage." He turned on the monitor again, this time facing his guest, and strolled over to her side.

"This is... the first test."

"Exactly."

"But I've never seen this video before. And who...?" She gestured at the flying figure on the screen.

Suddenly it was clear. Why Ozpin had kept the rest of the staff from viewing this one child's examination footage. Without doing anything, the falling figure resigned himself to his fate and crashed into the canopy. The angle then switched to a ground view, and captured the moments where the momentum struck the boy into the ground...

...and ripped him to shreds as he slid along the forest floor. The splatter even managed to catch the camera itself from its hidden vantage point behind a nearby tree trunk.

"We... we lost a student." She had seen it happen before; when the footage was reviewed for grading, students who failed the first exam were not shown to the staff. Common courtesy, nothing more. No reason to show her specifically how the child was brutalized, his clothes torn from his wiry frame and snagged on the trees.

"No, we didn't. Your memory is superb, Glynda. How did you not notice that you had one more student than we had graded that day?"

She gasped, and ran over her mental records again. A student she hadn't noticed? A student Ozpin had hidden from the staff in plain sight?

Of course. It made sense when you thought about it. Despite his oddities, he spoke so little and attracted so little attention that it was easy to gloss over his existence. She gestured for the footage to be played again, no matter how much it made her sick to see a promising youth mangled by his impact.

It was the same red hoodie.

"I don't understand. If he died in the forest, how can he be attending my classes?"

Ozpin's smile faded, and his serious expression was nearly cold enough to freeze raindrops in flight.

"Watch on." He fast forwarded through the carnage to about two or so minutes afterwards. The forest was painted in blood, indiscriminate piles of meat scattered on the ground. As she stared, her eyes slowly widened as the various bits and pieces began to collect in the center of a clearing, each moving, snail like, towards its neighbor. As they got closer, red strands of ligaments stretched out between them to tie the whole thing together. The masses of living substance reassembled themselves, carefully climbing on top of each other and laying each piece where it should be. A thin film of pale skin clambered over the frame and ichor receded into the cracks in the exterior.

After an excruciating sixty seconds the small, lithe form of Ahab Omobi lay naked on the forest floor, his junk tastefully pixelated. His eyes shot open under his fringe and he sat up suddenly, turning from side to side to search for his clothing.

Ozpin paused the video. Goodwitch was almost too stunned for words.

Almost.

"This is... ridiculous."

"Isn't it? Now you see why I couldn't show the rest of the staff. Having a child with those kinds of attributes..." He shuddered. "This cannot become public information."

"But what is it? Some sort of reincarnation Semblance?"

Ozpin openly laughed, though coldly and without joyfulness. "You know I don't believe in those spiritual things. Besides, we've already determined what his Semblance is. Rest assured, it's fittingly gruesome, but it doesn't involve coming back to life in this sort of manner. No, this is something entirely different."

"Different? How could it possibly be-"

"Understand that I don't have all the answers yet. I could ask the subject himself, but he has been escaping my summons for a while now. I've hired top researchers to get on the problem, they'll be arriving at the academy shortly, but I need your cooperation on this." He looked straight into her eyes, begging for aid, and she understood the enormity of the situation.

"Of course, headmaster."

"Perfect," he smiled. "But, onto other issues..." He flickered his fingers at the screen again and brought up another video recording, this time of a girl standing atop a pile of unconscious humanoid figures.

"Ah, I know this girl. She's... Ms. Cammo Deuce?" Her speaking slowed as the realization hit her of just what she was seeing.

"Indeed. This is a viral video from a few months back. _Girl Wrecks Vale Police Force_. Quite a spectacle, correct?" Glynda nodded shakily. Such a violent girl was being taught in her classes and kept on campus? Wasn't this a security threat of some sort?

"What are you plotting, showing me these images?"

"Rest assured, both of these kids are harmless. I talked to Ms. Deuce, and she was a very kind, open girl. There is a reason for everything, Glynda. You know how we calibrate the launchpads?"

"Certainly," she uttered curtly. The launchpads from the first exam were positioned, angled and aimed precisely (taking each student's skills into account as well) to make sure every child landed in the general area of at least one other student who was a good match. Ozpin's education methods were nothing if not convoluted, but the technique seemed to work very well in the long term. "Wait... does that mean that you purposely put those two..." She stalled, trying to find the word. "...monsters on the same team?"

"Don't be so silly," he assured her, waving his hand back and forth innocently. "They have different partners. It was never guaranteed that they would end up on the same team. But I did make some adjustments to ensure they would end up with their current partners, and I'd advise you keep an eye on all four of them. They were supposed to be paired up with other, more predictable students to balance them out, but things just worked out that way in the end."

"And now I'm in charge of them?" Her eyes turned cold to rival his frigid gaze, but to no effect.

He turned to her, eyes glinting with his strange brand of mischievousness. "Of course. I am leaving their surveillance up to you. As the only staff member who understands their situation, I want you to keep a close eye on them."

He turned to gaze out of the clock face behind his desk.

"It will get rather interesting this year."

* * *

"...And so, I decided to call this meeting and discuss our various baggage. If we're going to be a team, we need to understand each others' pasts and accept our separate experiences."

Team ECQA had propped the innermost beds up against the walls and assembled in a circle in the center of the room. It looked like a rather progressive AA meeting, and there was a possibility that it could just become exactly like that. Eido had just finished recounting Ahab's life story to the other two. Cammo leaned back on Quincy with a bored look on her face and the giant was paying rapt attention.

"That would be a good idea," Quincy noted. "How splendid to share more about ourselves."

"Oi, Quincy, quit talking like that." Cammo picked a piece of lint out of her hair, then released and retied her left pigtail. High maintenance, this girl.

"Understood."

"Furthermore," she drawled, "I don't see any benefit to sharing our _feelings_ in a circle like a bunch of saps."

"You really are a different person when its just the team." Eido grinned villainously. "Is there some reason for that?"

"Look, I don't have to tell you about my life. Just know that everybody from my last school loves me. That tells you something about me." She waggled her neatly plucked eyebrows at the blind man. "Just so you know, I'm moving my eyebrows suggestively right now."

"Thanks for the play by play," chuckled Eido. "Now, any first takers?"

Quincy raised his hand causing Cammo to lose her balance and fall back onto the floor. "Shit, Quince!"

"Ah, apologies."

"You don't need to raise your hand, Quincy," muttered Ahab from the corner, legs turtled away into his hoodie from the embarrassment of having his history retold in front of him. "Just go ahead and tell us."

"Understood." He stretched and cracked his knuckles, then folded his legs criss-cross applesauce and began his story.

"I was born this way," and here he gestured to his body, "deformed. Because of this my biological parents abandoned me on the doorstep of a little church in the countryside, and the resident priest, Father Rath, took me in. Apparently this happens a lot where I come from because I was the fifth child left in his care, so he called me Quincy. Now, raising five children as a priest of the good faith is not at all easy, so he asked us to work in the fields very frequently while he performed his duties. I still remember the lush golden crop and the ripple of wind through the grain." He breathed in and out deeply, taking in the long gone, nostalgic scent of wet earth as if it was right there in front of him.

The team waited patiently, even Cammo caught up in his tale.

"I worked hard for many years under Father, despite my abnormalities, and he indoctrinated me into the church as a reward. It was a good time. Alas," he rumbled, looking down to his calloused hands, "nothing good lasts forever. It's a simple fact of life.

"The church sat on a hill overlooking a deep, dark forest, where Grimm were still rumored to roam about in packs. We never believed it until they emerged from the treeline and began making their way towards the church itself. Father told us all to run, but I couldn't leave. I loved the place, see? I did not want to leave it behind. Father stayed behind to drag me along, but I wouldn't budge. I was already stronger than him by then, and far more stubborn. I was a fool.

"The Grimm killed him. I survived when the bell tower miraculously collapsed and our very largest bell landed right over my head, shielding me from those monsters. By the time I awoke the next day, not a single wall of the church remained."

A stunned silence.

"You've... had a tough time I see," mumbled Ahab through several layers of fabric.

"Yeah..."

"Oh, that's not so important." Quincy smiled and waved the incident aside. "It's the losses in our life which show us how to keep living, correct? Anyway, I've come to terms with that, so there's no need to worry."

"Wait, so what about your weapon?" Cammo pointed to the harness and rocket launchers, still hovering menacingly behind him.

"When I moved to the city, it was difficult to pay my way through life. People do not want anything to do with a man of the faith in this town, nor with a deformed child like myself. So I worked, as hard as I could. I did the heaviest construction that no one else would. I repaid my community with my specialty - manual labor." He pointed at his back. "These are the tools I used for my toughest jobs. Special cases require the most specialized tools."

"You're ridiculous," Cammo scoffed. "I can't believe you're so carefree."

"I was saved that day." He turned to the window, which the curtains were unfortunately drawn over. "Saved by the lord himself. If the bell hadn't fallen on me, I never would have survived at the hands of those Grimm. That's the moment in my life where I truly started believing in a higher power, and it has made my life so much better." He smiled amiably to his teammates. "You should try it sometime."

"Sorry, we heathens have our own schedules to keep. Besides, I've got my own story to tell."

Cammo "ooooh"ed with a heaping dose of sarcasm. "The amazing story of how our young prince, Eido Pitch, lost his precious eyes." He flicked a piece of lint from his black striped pajama pants (ridiculously professional, even while asleep) at her forehead and began with gusto.

"When I was a lad," he declared, imitating Professor Port much to the team's amusement, "I did nothing but play. Truthfully, I was an astounding genius and was taking classes three years beyond my age bracket. My IQ was off the charts. My family's money ensured I led a very happy life. All was well in the Kingdom of Eidolandia.

"Until," he gasped, raising one finger to simulate suspense, "I made a horrible, horrible mistake. It was the day of the family picnic. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and relatives from all over Remnant had arrived, along with a sizable press group. I remember it as if it was yesterday..." He dropped the phony accent and took on a new note of seriousness. "I slipped away from the many bodyguards, paparazzi, distant family members and whatnot, and toddled off into the nearby woods. Stupid, right? An heir, a genius heir no less, wandering away from a life of luxury into the dangerous unknown. But... that's just how things turned out. If I could go back and redo it, you can bet your ass I would.

"A storm was brewing on the horizon, and my family began packing up to prematurely end the picnic. But I wasn't there. I was lost in the forest. Hopelessly wandering around among the twisted black trees. Then the lightning started. I hid under a short, stout little tree and waited (because you can be damned sure I knew exactly how lightning worked). However, in a stupid twist of fate, lightning struck another tree, a tall, proud pine, and brought it crashing down right in front of me. I stood up to try and run away but all I got was a flurry of branches scraping across my eyes.

"The rescue team found me later, thanks to my family's pressuring, but by then the wounds had progressed too far and my eyes were permanently damaged. I did the only normal thing to do in that situation: beg my daddy to make me new eyes."

Eido pulled down his shades and tapped the crimson red orbs in his sockets. "He couldn't give me my sight, but he made these as well as my sunglasses. Did I tell you Pitch dabbles in arms dealing/inventing? Of course, after the injury, it wasn't really safe for me to be left outside to roam anymore, so I ended up spending eight years of my life in what may as well have been solitary confinement. Studying, learning to see without my eyes, fighting, all that development took place behind the closed doors of the Pitch family mansion. This is... actually the first time I've talked to other kids in years." He ran a hand through his white hair sheepishly.

"Wait a minute, something doesn't add up just yet," Cammo interjected. "If this is your first time speaking to other kids your age, how come you do it so easily? I mean, looking at Ahab..." He blushed and curled up even more.

"Lessons. Hours of learning both polite manners and pop culture. I also watched a lot of sitcoms. Well, _watched_ isn't really the right word..."

"That explains the bad puns," Ahab groaned. Eido stuck his tongue out. "Tehepero~"

"Good god, this is a waste of time," Cammo spat. "So what if I know you guys lived through some weird circumstance when you were kids? Does it change a single damn thing about who we are right now?"

"A wonderful idea," Quincy reiterated, but she shushed him curtly and continued on her rant.

"I don't care about what happened to you in the past! If you aren't even affected by it, what reason do I have to care about your lives?"

"Cammo, we're all affected..."

"No, you're not! You just crack jokes about your blindness, and Quincy doesn't give a shit about what happened to his family! Ahab's just awkward as hell, but it's not like he's some sort of cripple or anything, just an angsty teenager! There's no reason to even bring this kind of thing up!"

Quincy visibly bristled, but it was the tiny leader who stood up.

"Then why don't you share your story with us?" Ahab spoke firmly, something he rarely ever did. His hands were trembling from the exertion, but he took slow, shaky steps towards her and looked her straight in the eyes. "Why don't you show us how _affected_ you are? What could have possibly happened to you to make you such an unfeeling, selfish bitch?"

She puffed her cheeks, containing what must have been exasperated screaming, then stormed out the door and slammed it shut.

Cammo didn't return. Their third night as a team, and the 'equals' were already divided.

* * *

**OH THE EXPOSITION ITS OVERWHELMING**

**In all honesty, I kind of wanted to get this chapter out of the way. It's been bugging me for a while that Quincy was just a nice guy, Cammo was just a bitch and Eido was just a sleazy rich kid. They all have their own unique, somewhat disturbing stories to tell (though we'll get to that later).**

**BTW all members of team ECQA have historical/fictional character bases. Can you tell who is who? (This will be addressed in the next chapter, so place your bets now!)  
**

**Most of the plot is already planned out, all I need to do is get off my lazy ass and write it. I promise its definitely going to get more interesting, just bear with me and my selfindulgence :D Also, if you have anything you wanna see or anything you think was totally stupid and should be changed, leave a review! It really does help and gives me that extra giddy feeling of joyful joyfulness.**


	7. Deuce

A subtle knocking at the door echoed through Ozpin's dimly lit office. He looked up from the holographic monitor suspiciously. Did he have another appointment today he had forgotten about? Glynda was always suggesting he buy a planner, but he kept forgetting about it.

He brought up the live video feed from the camera in the hallway and took a long sip of coffee. It was way too late for him to be forced to approve club registrations, probably ruining his health too, dammit. He peered at the screen over his glasses before realizing just who was outside the door: a short little girl in a green nightie.

Interesting development. Almost like the start of a porno. Wait, ewww, don't think about that kind of stuff.

He called "Come in," and she obliged, tip toeing over the threshold of the huge double doors. Their unnecessary enormity simply dwarfed her all the more.

She seemed... uncharacteristically meek. Was it because of her giant surroundings?

"You needn't be frightened," he beckoned, but she shook her pigtails furiously. They were slowly coming undone and bounced into her face as she swung them. She gagged spat out a few chestnut hairs.

"Sorry, I'm not like this... usually..." she mumbled. Cammo wrung her hands together and tentatively paced towards the chair he gestured her towards. She collapsed onto the stiff red velvet drew her knees up to her chin, bringing Ozpin's attention to her feet. Slender, pale and smooth, but dirty from running on stone tile barefoot.

"What happened, Ms. Deuce? Explain everything."

"Well gee, don't you sound accommodating," she chuckled halfheartedly.

He let the command sit as she shifted back and forth uncomfortably. Finally she gave in.

"It's my teammates."

"And?"

"I can't stand them."

...

"You know, I talked to a girl like you just recently."

"No, it's not that they're stupid or immature like with team RWBY. Sure, they are all that, but it's not their fault really. I'm the one to blame." She waited for his reaction, and he returned the silence, prompting her to continue.

"They're... better than me."

"Well, true, Omobi especially has far greater combat scores, but-"

"That's not it," she said. "When I was younger, my dad left my household. My mom, she... she didn't bother paying attention to me, because I reminded her of him. She was hurting, and I was hurting, and we had a bad relationship."

Ozpin nodded understandingly. Sure, he wasn't the academy counselor ('Do we have one of those?' he wondered), but students were frequently plagued by problems with family.

"As a kid, the one thing I really wanted over anything else was to be recognized. Not by my mom, not anymore, but by everyone else. I changed my looks, I made friends, I studied the status quo, I even put other kids down and used them as stepping stones. Soon enough, my town revolved around me. I became the queen, the empress of my school system. Even teachers would look up to me while I bullied children behind the scenes.

"I got into the world of Hunters and Huntresses when I received my first weapon from my favorite teacher, Mr. Aurelius. It was a really simple one, an AK-sword, and it convinced me my future was in monster slaughter. Of course, my mother objected. It was the first time she talked to me, even acknowledged me in years. My dad used to be a Hunter himself, and she didn't want to see anything related to him in her household. But I fought back. I wasn't going to let her take away my dream: I was going to become the most famous Huntress in the world and bask in glory forever." Cammo slammed her fist into her hand, gnashing her teeth. A determined fire blazed in her eyes. "She tried to grab my weapon, but I ran away. I actually fought her, almost shooting her in the process, good god my nerves were fucking shot.

"I ran away. All I had was the AK-sword, running as hard as I could from that shitty little town. It was too small for me, right? Way too small for the greatest Huntress in all of Remnant. That was the first time my connections really came in handy; I dropped by some of the richer kids from my school and picked up a couple of Lien from them. Hitchhiked and trudged my way to Vale, the capital, the place where legendary heroes are trained. And I was broke.

"You know what kids do when they're broke right? Well, not all kids, but the kids who run away from home, bully their peers and swing around gun/blade contraptions."

"They find jobs?" Ozpin suggested.

"Close: they commit crime. But they get caught, because they're kids. For me, it was fraud, and I was unlucky enough to get caught by the wrong people. Just a stupid girl with an AK-sword and her people skills, trying to con old men out of their Lien at the Club. You know the place, right? You should, a good commander understands the undergrounds of his city just as much as the daylight scene."

Ozpin gave a little "mmm-hmm" of approval. "Though I wouldn't call myself a commander."

"There are dark places in Vale. The kinds of places where human beings truly shine through the monotony of their daily lives. Where a normal salary man can become a high stakes gambler, where a violent punk can become a well known champion."

His gaze narrowed, and he leaned in with new interest. "Arena fighting."

"Exactly. Real gladiators, abandoning their health to the ring for betting tokens. Nothing like the star athletes and Hunters you raise here at Beacon, but bloody messes of children surrounded by cursing, screaming crowds. The same way you have your bars, parties, unlawful assemblies and robberies here in Vale, the illegal practice of betting on arena fighting is broiling right below the surface. Being too small and violent for the sex industry, I got locked into the arena to fight other teenagers who had been fighting for their lives in the alleyways for years.

"And I could beat them all. I got fucking amazing at my job. It was just so... exhilarating to be cheered on by dozens of strangers, so exciting to be the center of attention, that I just couldn't let them go home disappointed. My first time was a slaughter, and I kept getting beaten down, but I gave them a damn good show. Each time I got better, quicker, flashier, stronger. Soon they were calling me 'Empress' again, like they used to back in my hometown. They became my new family, Narcissus and my trainers, my sponsors, even my fellow fighters were looking up to me. I even got a new pair of weapons out of the experience." She chomped her teeth and showed off her lime green braces. "I started thinking that I could build my reputation as a Huntress from these humble beginnings, maybe one day get recognized by a famous team and skyrocket to superstardom.

"But of course I couldn't have fun forever. Everything gets dug up eventually, so long as someone is out there looking for the truth. Three months ago, the Vale police force busted down the doors of the old warehouse in the imports district we had been hanging out at. The patrons weren't there, but they were arresting every miscreant they could get their hands on. It wasn't fair, seeing my audience taken away from me. Then I did something... I never should have.

"Actually, in the end, it turns out I was lucky that someone had recorded the fight. I mean, it caught your attention, didn't it?" She grinned. "That brings me to present day. But you see my problem now, right?"

"No, I can't say I do. In fact, I think you fit in perfectly fine with your teammates. They are all no better or worse than you," said Ozpin pointedly.

"See, you don't understand at all. Ahab was raised on a mountainside, fighting Grimm everyday. Eido is a super genius who still excels everywhere despite losing his eyes and being trapped in solitary confinement for years. Quincy was stunted at birth, but he survived through hard work and suffered great losses and is still the happy go lucky guy he is today. They're all amazing, they've all moved on from what bothered them. I can't do that.

"Everything that happened to me was all my fault. I was the one who got caught committing fraud, I was the one who ran away from home and I was the one who fought with my mother and almost killed her. I got trapped up in myself, and I still remember what it was like clearly. All because my mom stopped talking to me my identity changed. I'm me mostly because of those years when I was running away from my problems and hurting people. And I still can't move on, can't change who I am now." She began to sniffle.

"They got over it... so why can't I?" Her hands started trembling, and she trapped them between her arms and torso to hide her shakiness. She doubled over, resting her forehead on her thin, pointed knees as if in a subservient pose begging forgiveness. Sniffles turned to sobs, and soon she was convulsing with tears.

Ozpin placed the tip of his cane between her legs and tipped her chin up, staring into her eyes with a whimsical sort of gentleness. "You're no worse than your teammates, Ms. Deuce. Just because your tragedies shaped your self doesn't mean you are worth less than anyone whose life is full of joy. We never really get over the past, simply accept it. Don't think for a second that your teammates don't think the same things when they recall their own struggles. 'What if I hadn't run away.' 'What if I'd just been silent.' Everyone has regrets, but as you said, you can't change who you are now." He chuckled. "Frankly, I think your current self is rather enjoyable. Very different from the you I met two days ago."

Cammo gaped at him. "Uuuuh, yeah. I kind of let myself slip this time around. Sorry about that."

"In that case, please continue to let yourself slip," he replied, drawing himself to slippered feet. He drew his scarf a little tighter and shivered. It was most definitely late and he had papers still left to look over and approve. "Are you going to be alright tonight?"

"Well, I'm not too sure," she muttered sheepishly. "I kind of stormed out of the room hastily, so I don't have a blanket or anything like that with me. And I can't go back there now, can I? That would be way too awkward."

"Understood. Feel free to use the staff room."

"Huh? Really?" She waited for his nod, then jumped out of her seat and raced for the door. "Thanks, Oz!"

He raised an eyebrow at that, but gave up on a retort when she slammed the door behind her. 'Back to the approvals,' he assumed, sighing deeply, only interrupted once more that night when Cammo returned to open the door a sliver and whisper "Thank you".

* * *

**And so ends the last of the huge backstory chapters. Writing and then posting this at 12:30 AM, so I think it's safe to say this is probably a bad decision. Now I think it's worth addressing the sort of obvious naming 'coincidences' in play here.**

**Cammo Deuce is based off of the Roman emperor Commodus, who enjoyed climbing in the arena personally and killing people. Her weapon and characters from her backstory are all references to various stories and works of art revolving around him.**

**Quincy Modo is the even more obvious hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo. His affinity for the church, bell tower and hard work all stem from this connection.**

**Eido Pitch is a play on the fictional king Oedipus, who (spoilers!) lost his eyes for his hubris at the end of the play Oedipus Rex. His family background and status is all representative of such.**

**Ahab Omobi is a bit of a stretch, but his inspiration is Captain Ahab from the book Moby Dick. It may not seem so intuitive now, but there are many other design choices based off of this connection that will be explored later in the story.**

**Hope you're having fun reading my mindless self indulgence (oh hey, they make some good music) and make sure to leave a review, because why not? :D**


	8. Instigator

**This chapter touches on events from episode 11 of the canon series.**

* * *

Cammo appeared at breakfast the next day looking considerably worse for wear. The staff room was, naturally, nowhere near as comfortable as her own bed. She had felt like Goldilocks, walking from couch to couch and testing each one only to find they all had that despicable 'adult' feel to them. Ozpin's decorating taste (or was it someone else's entirely, considering he probably wouldn't be interested in something like interior design) was so stiff and cramped that in the end she had opted to sleep under the coffee table, on the sparse patch of carpet. The night had been difficult and cold, and now she was paying the price for her foolishness. On top of that, she had been forced to wait until her teammates had left the dorms and sneak in afterwards to change.

"'Feel free to use the staff room' my ass," she grumbled, and settled into her usual seat with a plate of pancakes, warmth radiating off of the golden stack and heating her up. She took a deep breath of the nearly orgasmic aroma, like sunshine and nostalgia.

Through her sleep deprived state, she barely even noticed her teammates in a collective cold sweat.

"She's here," whispered Eido, cupping his hand over his mouth to conceal the noise. "What do we do?"

"Hell if I know. She's way ahead of the game right now," replied Ahab.

"In all honesty, I was expecting at least two more days of this."

"No, it's definitely a ploy of some sort. She just wants us to break down and ask her to come back."

"Could we do that?" asked Quincy, apparently not picking up on the need to keep his goddamn voice down.

"QUINCY!" they hissed, but Cammo blinked away the haziness and turned to the blurry figures of the boys.

"Oh shit," she mouthed. They all sat for a moment in silence, both boys frozen like deer in front of glaring headlights.

"Is she mad?" whispered Ahab again, resuming their hushed conversation.

"I don't think so. She hasn't made any violent moves yet, but we can't be sure."

"You know I can hear you now. That won't work anymore," Cammo pointed out.

"I think we're screwed."

The green girl raised a hand to shush her teammates. "Shut up for a second. I just wanted to say... I'm sorry."

They remained, statuesque, so she elaborated. "For making fun of your pasts. I guess. And your shitty attitudes." Dust, what was she saying? Wasn't she supposed to apologize? Focus, Cammo, focus!

"Wow..." Eido breathed. "You really are the worst." She bit back tears.

"No, I didn't mean-"

"Somehow, you manage to insult us in the nicest way."

"Or be nice in the most insulting way," added Ahab. The two of them both broke out into huge smiles, though the combination of the heir's villainous leer and his partner's shadowy smile underneath the heavy shag of black hair was slightly creepy. Huge, welcoming/disturbing smiles.

Cammo couldn't help herself. She felt the corners of her tragically unchapped lips twitch up. "Screw you guys, I'm trying to be serious here."

"Serious? What's that?"

"Of course you wouldn't know what it means," muttered Ahab. "Do you know how many times he tried to screw with your stuff when you were gone?"

"Ugh," she shivered at the thought. "But in all honesty, you two are like a two man comedy act."

"Don't worry, Quincy stopped him. You wouldn't believe what happened next, though."

"Who are you, Buzzfeed? She doesn't need to know about that..."

"Eh? What?" She shot out her seat, easily led by their banter. "What happened? Tell me!"

Quincy chuckled contentedly. Seeing his team laughing and smiling together gave him a nice, warm feeling. Kind of like these pancakes, now that he thought about it, and began to dig in.

Despite all the commotion that occurred, team ECQA were still family.

* * *

One of the more enjoyable parts of Beacon education (or excruciating, depending on how you looked at it), was the one on one sparring system. Of course, there were exceptions from time to time, one of which being the decently over powered Pyrrha Nikos, resident professional athlete and redheaded bombshell. However, the sparring ring was generally a place for individuals to shine in what many considered the most essential part of being a Hunter: solo combat.

This was Cammo Deuce's natural element.

After hearing the story of her past as a gladiator, it was no surprise to team ECQA that she would want to take the first, second and third battles all to herself. The passive Quincy and Ahab were more than willing to let her fight, and it only took a _little_ physical abuse to convince Eido that she was a perfect candidate for initial pickings.

She was earnestly crushed when Professor Goodwitch announced she had prepared the names of the combatants beforehand.

"Well shit, that beatdown was totally unnecessary," Ahab mused.

"It was unnecessary from the start!" raged the battered heir.

"First spar goes to... Cardin Winchester," called the instructor, and a tall, heavily built armored Hunter stepped forward. He leered, and turned to the audience. The amphitheater lights dimmed and a spotlight shone on the arena grounds, making him seem like the only person in the room. Cammo puffed her cheeks in frustration.

"That should be me down there," she muttered to anyone who would listen, ergo her unfortunate teammates.

"Your partner will be... Jaune Arc," spoke Goodwitch, looking up from the Scroll displaying the names of several students. A groan was heard from the same awkward blonde Ahab had seen (and Eido had heard) at the initiation. So he made it through, huh?

"That document she's got open," Ahab whispered to Cammo as a one sided battle began in the ring. "It must be the roster for sparring practice."

"Is my name on it?"

"Hell no," he lied.

"Shame. I really wanted to have a go at that rich white girl. She probably thinks she's good just because she had a good time against that animal last time."

"That was, like, two days ago. Give it a rest."

"Not until I put that bitch in her place. She assumes she's so much better than everyone else, but I bet I could take her easily."

Ahab said nothing, barely daring to breathe, as he realized who was seated in the row just in front of them. The entirety of team RWBY. Oh, and they were shooting suspicious glances backwards. Lovely. Cammo continued to rant, unperturbed, losing herself in spiteful bile. She really chose the worst times to show her true colors.

"And doesn't she dress like a kid at a dance recital? Dust, even my mom didn't hate me enough to dress me like that. It almost hurts the eyes to look directly at her."

Evidently bored by the fighting taking place, Eido joined in. "Yeah, right? I mean, it's almost blinding."

"Shut up, Eido. I'm on a roll." Ahab hung his head between his knees and pulled his hood over his head in pure embarrassment. "Eh? What's wrong? Oh, I get it, you're facepalming at just the thought of her outfit."

He tried to stutter a denial, but Weiss finally snapped and whirled around, her white side ponytail whipping the face of her own partner.

'What was her name again? Judy?' he wondered.

"Would you kindly shut up? It's not nice to talk about a person behind their back."

"Especially when you're _right _behind her back," added Yang. The girl with the black bow next to her ('Where have I seen her before?' he wondered) showed vague interest, but abstained from jumping in. The red-cloak girl acted confused, caught off guard by the sudden hair slap and outburst of her teammate.

"Ah, speak of the devil. Hello, Yang," Eido nodded to the blonde and the platinum in turn. "And hello, Ms. Schnee. Fancy seeing you here." He snickered to himself, but the joke went over their heads as neither of the girls were aware of his condition.

Wait, how did he know she was Weiss Schnee?

"Yeah, good to see you too," Weiss growled. She turned to Cammo, leaning over the back of her seat. "You." The princess aimed one slender finger at the green girl.

"Me?" She knocked herself on the head innocently and flipped a pigtail. Crap, there goes the perfect act.

"What's your problem, huh? What have you got against me?"

"Ah, the jig's up," mumbled the heir. "My associate here was just complimenting you on your ability to light up a room." Cammo snorted, slapping a hand over her lips to keep herself from laughing aloud. Of course, the movement hurt like hell. If only she'd had a chance to take care of her skin and whatnot this morning, but looking horrible seemed to pronounce horrible attitude.

Weiss fumed. "Look, I don't know what ideas you've got in your head about me, but at least I don't spread false rumors about people."

"I'm sure you don't honey. Such acts would mean certain disgrace for an heiress of Schnee," Cammo spat.

"Ms. Deuce, we should refrain from speaking ill of others," Quincy advised, but the shorter Huntress stood up in her seat and held her index finger aloft in mimicry of Weiss' gesture.

"Think you're so high and mighty don't you? Well, even if you can gut one pig like a good little girl, that doesn't make you so much stronger than me!" She took a moment, then corrected herself. "...stronger than _us_!"

"Leave me out of this," Ahab said, reverting back to his nigh unnoticeable whimper. He tried his best to focus on the massacre taking place in the sparring arena. It wasn't easy; the Arc kid was totally outclassed by Winchester, who was beating him back with little effort. He averted his eyes as Blake scanned him up and down, making careful observation of him and his teammates. Dust, it was hard to look away from those brilliant golden eyes. They seemed to draw his gaze, exerting a strange attraction on his pupils.

Dangerous girl.

"Oh, that's how you wanna play it?" Yang shouted, standing up from her own chair and cracking her knuckles. "What, four on four? I can handle that!"

"I'm sure we can find a peaceful solution to this conflict-" the giant started, but Cammo placed her petite hands over his mouth and held it shut. The size difference was huge enough that it took both hands.

"Damn straight, let's duel this out right now!" she declared. The hot headed duo of Eido and Cammo locked eyes with the equally proud Weiss and Yang. Even Ruby ('That was her name! Ruby!'), without a clue of what was happening, seemed combat ready. However, both parties backed down when Goodwitch shot them a glare and placed a finger over her lips.

"So when do we do it?" Eido whispered excitedly.

"As soon as possible of course. Next time we're called for sparring, just pick one member from the other team. We tally up the victories and decide the winner from that," said Weiss, tossing her hair casually.

"You've thought it all out, haven't you?"

"Well, someone needs to be practical about this."

"We'll need some extra rules," Cammo added. "No biting, no nails, no groin shots..."

"That's not much of a problem for like... six of us," Eido said.

Ahab narrowed his eyes and leaned into the taller boy's ear. "Wait, did you just include me in tha-"

"Also!" said Cammo, getting way too into the upcoming battle. "One fight per person."

"Fair enough," Yang shrugged.

"What? What's going on?"

"We'll explain later, Ruby," snapped Weiss, turning back to the battle drawing to a close. "We're going to beat them fair and square."

"Sure, say that after we kick your sorry butts to the curb."

"Oi. Eido. Stop the smiling. You look way too serious."

Goodwitch began to reprimand Cardin for showing what could only be called murderous intent in the arena. He shrugged it off and walked away, leaving the beaten blonde on the floor. Shaking her head, she turned back to the crowd of students with a warning.

"Remember, everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing. Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale."

Team RWBY burst into various displays of excitement, excluding the calm and collected black bow girl. It seemed she was the foil for her high spirited companions, much in the same way Ahab acted as a resistor to Eido and Cammo's extreme whims. He suddenly felt a vague kinship with the lithe girl.

Who was she again? For some reason, Ahab couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he felt like he had seen her before.

Well, he would certainly be seeing more of her now...

* * *

**Oh dear, seems team ECQA likes to start fights. Perfe- I mean how horrid and disruptive. Start setting your bets now for who will win the following fights.**

**No worries, there is no Gary Stu to be found here. Every battle is decided based on how exciting I think it might be and plays according to each combatant's strengths and weaknesses. I'll make it as realistic as possible *wink***

**Thanks for taking the time to read my silly story, and have a good day.**


	9. Training

**Because I like to procrastinate on these things, I have taken a lot of time to bring you a totally unnecessary and annoyingly short chapter. Enjoy :D**

* * *

"All troops, attention!"

Cammo aimed a roundhouse kick at Ahab, who moved two centimeters to the right and avoided her completely. The whole team was on their way to what their little green figurehead had deemed an essential mission, which they unofficially dubbed a 'training montage'.

"I hope that's not the best you can do, Cammo. And Ahab's still the team leader." Eido lazily twirled his ponytail as he walked, already out of his Beacon uniform and back in his suit. Combat suit, that is. Very practical. At his side was slung a sleek black messenger bag with a gold clasp.

"In name only, in name only," she tutted. "Everyone knows that I'm the one pulling the strings here."

The little leader in question shrank down and shrugged. "I don't have too many objections to tha-."

But he was interrupted by a swift slap to the back. "C'mon kid, you've got to man up from time to time!" the heir urged.

"I'd prefer not to..."

The corridor began its slow incline and they emerged into the light of the Amphitheater. There were several students already using the grounds, holding minor sparring sessions and such, but team ECQA simply skirted around them until they found an empty space. Quincy took a knee noiselessly and allowed Cammo to ascend onto his back. She propped herself up on one knee and raised a single fist.

"What is our mission, boys?" she shouted loud and clear.

Neither of them had any clue.

"To crush team RWBY in hand to hand combat!" declared Cammo, smashing her mitt into her opposite hand. "Failure is not an option, not in my squad! I won't lie, this is a dangerous mission. Look to the man next to you. Do it for our great nation. Vive la revolution!" She raised two signs of the horns to the ceiling. Other students began to cast weird looks in their direction, and some even packed up and left. Ahab pulled the rim of his hood over his reddening features.

"Oi! Private! What's with the dere dere mode?"

"Me?" he said weakly, gesturing to himself. "I'm the Private?"

"Cut the crap, Private, or I'll have you swabbing the decks!"

"Now you're not even using military cliches," drawled Eido, clicking the clasp of his bag open and drawing a thin laptop out of its leather-lined compartments. He deftly balanced it on his left forearm and popped a microphone in his ear before tapping away. By now, the majority of students had evacuated the arena, with only a few determined upperclassmen left sparring.

"You don't want to get rid of those ones?"

"Nah, they're cool," replied Cammo. "I know them." She sent an oddly fashion-savvy brunette a wave and received a curt nod in return. "But that's besides the point. What are you doing, Corporal?"

"I don't think you understand how army rank works... but I'm gathering intel."

"From where?"

"The school databases, obviously."

"W-w-wait," whispered Ahab, growing more and more aware of the presence of the second year students. "Isn't that against a rule somewhere?"

"Well, these files are most likely only open to teachers and faculty. For example, the individual performance videos of our first examination." He grinned wide. "But I'm sure our lovely mainframe will make an exception for us," cooed the heir.

"So you're seducing the computer... good work Commander." She gave him a thumbs up and vague promotion for his hard work.

...

Eido pouted and tapped his foot, making sharp echoing noises.

"What's wrong?"

"Aren't you going to ask me how I can use the computer?"

"Not really," Cammo replied.

"We know you just want to show off again, and we already understand how smart you are."

"I'd assume you memorized the positions of the keys and cursor," added Quincy. "And that little device in your ear is probably explaining the screen to you in some way."

The heir tried desperately to salvage his moment. "Hahahahaaaaa, precisely! It speaks to me in the most efficient code for relaying information imaginable! I wouldn't expect you commoners to comprehend-"

"That's enough of you acting cool, just show us what you found." Cammo hopped down from her human podium and snatched at the laptop, but he raised it just out of her reach.

"Easy there, short stuff."

"Oi! I gave you guys cooler nicknames than that!"

Ahab, who had retreated into a defensive position on the arena floor, waved as inconspicuously as possible to attract their attention. "Cammoooooo," he spoke with a minute voice like the wind whispering. She couldn't pick up on it, but Eido immediately responded and offered the screen to his leader, keeping Cammo's prying hands at bay.

Suddenly, he felt the a menacing aura colored like the deepest depths of the ocean creeping up behind him. He hurriedly released her and sighed in relief as it dissipated instantly. Maybe losing his eyes had affected him more than he had expected.

"Ooooh, nice find, Eido," Ahab breathed, daring to raise his voice in order to congratulate his tech savvy partner. "It's got their weapon specs, semblances, personal info, everything." He double clicked on a video file and brought up an image of the black bow girl easily finishing an Ursa.

'That's right, her name is here somewhere...' After a several second episode of clumsy, frantic clicking he discovered a window with the name 'Blake Belladonna'.

Quite a pretty name...

Wait, her three sizes were there too!

The realization hit him too late, and Cammo plucked the laptop out of his flailing arms. "Let's see if we can develop some sort of strategy here..." She paid no attention to the despair of the curled up ball of red hoodie that was once her somewhat manageable team leader.

"It seems they're all mobility based... Weiss Schnee and Ruby Rose especially. Blake Belladonna is also a rather agile target."

"Well, when you compare that to our up close and personal style, it sounds a lot more helpful in team battles," Eido mused.

"All of them except Yang Xiao Long, she's a heavy hitter," noted Cammo.

"Yang is going to be a problem. I know how strong she is, and her blows are fast enough to outmaneuver all of you. I'd say the only one of us who has a shot at beating her is me."

"That won't be a problem. I'm going to be beating the crap out of Schnee," she chuckled.

"That's another poor matchup," Quincy pointed out. "Ms. Schnee is highly adept at using dust, something you won't be able to compete with until you make physical contact. Even that sounds like a challenge."

"I'm most worried about Blake," said Eido, waking Ahab out of his embarrassment. "Her semblance is a bit of a doozy for any of us. Our best chance is if Ahab faces her, since he's the closest to keeping up with her agility."

"Wh-wh-what? I mean, are you s-s-sure?" he stammered.

"Yeah, you've got to do your part in this fight too."

"I still think the best option would be not fighting," Quincy suggested, but that was evidently out of the question.

"So Quincy can handle Weiss, because he has long enough range."

"Sure, then I can finish off Red. No problemo."

"At least it'll be a close fight, even if you are at a disadvantage..."

"Oi! I'm at plenty of an advantage!"

Ahab sat there in a stupor. What had they said again? Something about the idea of fighting one on one in front of their entire class was throwing his mind for a loop. Something about him facing Blake... being the closest to Blake...

"Should we devise some sort of plan for training?" Quincy asked, raising himself to his feet now that he was no longer supporting a certain empress. He was getting more excited for the practice than the actual event.

Cammo cracked her knuckles a second time with slightly less gusto than before, as her knuckles were already cracked prior. They had the element of surprise on their side. This fight was totally won.

* * *

**Cammo tends to say 'Oi' a lot... and I think I remember Ahab saying it once as well... maybe that's just me being inconsistent with the characters. Well, the more developed they are, the more consistent their reactions and personalities should become. This chapter showcases what they're generally like in public and in the real world, while I've only shown them behind closed doors so far.**

**Hope you didn't find it a _total_ waste of time. Well, that's all for today anyway. Place your bets!**


	10. 1st Versus

**Still writing with zero repercussion on canon. Remember to tell me if I screw something up, 'kay? :D**

* * *

The bell rang, and 40 students rose in a single movement for combat training. All students were soon in combat outfits, perched on the collective edge of their seats. It seemed the whole first year class had noticed the tensity in the atmosphere and were waiting patiently for whatever upcoming event was on the way.

Cammo shot a dirty look towards team RWBY, and Eido imitated her. Ahab, on the contrary, did his best to avoid any sort of eye contact whatsoever.

"Did you do the job?" hissed Cammo through her clenched teeth. The heir returned a simple nod, flashing his signature horrifying grin.

"Excellent..." She permitted herself an evil cackle. "This is our victory."

"What... did you do?" Ahab asked hesitantly.

"I screwed around a bit with Goodwitch's roster. The first four names she calls will settle our team on team grudge."

Their targets were seated right next to them, Quincy and Blake dividing the two hostile parties. Team RWBY, from ECQA's leader's perspective at least, seemed to be rather carefree about the whole thing. They were probably confident that their names wouldn't be called so soon, or that they had the upper hand in almost every possible pairing. Blake's gaze meandered over to meet his, and Ahab nearly fell out of his chair averting his eyes. Did he really have to fight... well... her? What if he lost?

What if he won?

He shook his head to clear his mind. It wouldn't change anything. This was a chance encounter between the two groups, two straight lines that would meet once and then never cross paths again.

He had to stop himself from waving a listless goodbye.

"Our first combatant today will be... Ruby Rose."

Ahab could almost hear their token female turn to stone.

"OI! YOU SHITTY BLIND BASTARD, WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?" she hissed, shaking the heir by his collar. Now it was his turn to cackle villainously.

"Wouldn't it be more interesting if they got to choose the matches? I won't be satisfied with just a stomp, you know." She spit in his face, but his sadistic smile couldn't be any more resistant to her abuse.

Ahab relaxed a bit. It would be so much easier if he didn't have to attack Blake. Maybe he wouldn't even have to fight, in case they had forgotten the bet.

Yang and Weiss gripped their innocent young leader's shoulders and began whispering, one into each ear. Her eyes seemed to spiral in confusion under the barrage of information and suggestions. Nope, they hadn't forgotten.

Goodwitch snapped her back to reality. "Ms. Rose, please pick your sparring partner. We don't have all day."

"Uuuh... Cammo?" she said, more of a question than a statement.

"See~? No problem for you, right?"

Cammo tsked angrily, but consented. She flipped gracefully over the rows of seats in front of her onto the arena, landing in a striking action pose. Ruby actually looked impressed. She really was a child.

Cammo popped out her clunky green braces and mechashifted them into a beartrap with a subtle jerk of the wrist. Ruby drew Crescent Rose from her side and unfolded it. Even without the weapon and being a few years younger than her opponent, Ruby was certainly taller and more imposing. However, Cammo was stockier, with more pronounced musculature. The outcome of this fight was unpredictable.

"And... begin!"

Ruby flashed forward, whizzing around Cammo at almost undetectable speed.

"There goes her semblance. Speed isn't something you mess around with," Eido mused.

"I know you're just waiting for me to say it but... how can you see what's happening on the field? Especially at this speed."

"Shhh... that's a trade secret," chuckled the heir.

Cammo raised her hand to block an incoming side swipe. Their weapons were both sturdy enough to ping off each other without noticeable damage, so the only thing that mattered was moving fast enough to deflect each attack. Luckily, Ruby's speed was compensated for by her habit of clearly telegraphing all her attacks. There's only so much flourish you can pull off with a weapon that huge.

The two were locked in close combat for a moment, the defender's knees almost buckling under the force of each swing, her aura chipping away very slightly with each clash of arms. They had trained for these high speed impacts for hours yesterday, but the real Ruby Rose was much more powerful than any training mechanism (specifically, an enormous swinging hammer they had set up to strike the trainee around the gut unless they could steel their arms against the blow). A few seconds went by, Ruby dancing around Cammo like a top as she refused to budge from her defensive position. She screamed an unfortunately wimpy "HIYA" and whirled her weapon around in a wide arc.

Finally, an opening. Cammo popped her beartrap into its gaping ready position and received the full brunt of the blow, sliding back a few inches. Her aura level went down a tick, but something was wrong.

Ruby was no longer moving Crescent Rose. She was stuck in the lime green jaws of Nemean Grin.

The little girl struggled visibly to pry the scythe away, but Cammo simply held her in place. She fired a few shots to boost her way out, but to no avail.

"Now, let's play _my_ way."

"Eh?" Ruby asked, and Cammo brandished her weapon, Ruby's _and Ruby herself_ in one single motion over her head in response. The poor Huntress crashed face first into the arena floor, but Cammo didn't let up. This was the style she wielded in the arena for years: wait, capture and capitalize.

No surprise that she was dubbed the Empress.

Ruby's aura began to fall steadily as Cammo continually smashed her into the ground. Regardless, she kept her wits about her. At the last possible moment, before striking the ground for the eleventh time, she twisted her body and absorbed the impact with her legs. However, it wasn't enough. Despite finally having both feet firmly on the ground, she didn't have the upper body strength to throw Cammo off her like the Empress had done to her. At the very least, she had broken the cycle of beating. Now to get Crescent Rose out of the beartrap...

Impossible. No matter how many high power rounds she blasted, the barrel was caught in such a way that each bullet careened off to the side. It was far more likely that she would hit a member of the audience member than her opponent with that itchy trigger finger.

Reluctantly, almost with tears in her eyes, she released the scythe.

"Wait for me, my baby~" she cried, channeling all the drama of a shoujo manga.

"Pay attention!" Cammo tossed the blade deftly into the air and raced at Ruby. Dust, how strong was she?

'A chance!' she thought, and jumped to retrieve her weapon.

All she received for her efforts was a spiked knuckleduster to the gut. She rocketed off to the side with the blow, barely managing to land on her feet. Unsteadily, she remained crouching and analyzed her opponent.

"What's wrong?" Cammo teased, catching Crescent Rose on it's descent and meshing the two halves of Nemean Grin back into beartrap form. "You won't get your _baby_ back without getting past me."

"Wanna bet she'll get it back?" Eido nudged his partner.

"No." It was clear just who was going to win the match. Ruby wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. "But isn't the fight rather..."

"Quiet?"

"Yeah. Like the audio is muffled or something." Cammo, being adorned in all sorts of jingling and jangling accessories, from bracelets to collars to her hair ties, was barely making a sound as she moved.

"That's her semblance," explained Eido. "She absorbs vibrations in the air, and when she finds an opportunity..."

Crescent Rose spun into the air again, and Ruby dove for it. This time, she ducked and rolled around her far slower enemy, now more attentive of her surroundings. "You're not gonna get me twice with the same move!" she shouted behind her as she closed her grip around Crescent Rose and turned to the offensive again.

Cammo swung a straight right into Ruby, which she barely blocked with the handle of Crescent Rose. Even in knuckleduster mode, Cammo was still relentless in her assault. She began to press forward steadily, forcing the smaller girl back. She hadn't been trained to handle such a fearsome barrage before. Like an assault rifle, Cammo pelted her with blows.

She narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to shout.

"...she releases it."

A cacophony of noise poured forth from her throat, a mashup of tinkling and the smashing of metal on metal and flesh on ground and the howling of warriors all rolled into one split second explosion of noise. It was the most deadly mixtape on earth. The sudden attack caught Ruby off guard, and she reeled under the sound which would deafen an everyday human being.

In that instant, Cammo ducked low and thrust through her shattered defenses, catching her in the gut a second time. Another blast of noise erupted underneath her chin and Ruby was sent flying backwards, keeping a death grip on her beloved Crescent Rose. Her aura dropped down past fifty percent, and suddenly the match seemed to turn around. Her brutal tactics from her days as a gladiator had come close to winning her this fight.

But it was all over. Ruby sank her blade into the ground and opened fire. Cammo ducked to the side and dashed forwards, but the petite red hooded girl was ready for it. She hopped and fired a single explosive shot, grazing Cammo's temple and propelling herself backwards. Her quarry off balance, she then charged forward and turned the momentum of the skirmish. Cammo was back in the same position as before, slowly being chipped away by Ruby's speed and agility. It would take her another minute to naturally charge up that strong a blast again, and by then she would be finished.

She deftly switched back into beartrap form and slid a single green bracelet off her forearm. The next attack struck the glass bracelet in midair, releasing the surprise inside. Vibrations shook the air right down to their lungs and Cammo spun into action. This was her only chance: breaking Ruby's onslaught and turning the tide of the fight through trickery. Dammit, those things were expensive, too. She managed to juggle Ruby's body for a few straight seconds, releasing another sound wave, but one burst of fire from Crescent Rose was enough to reset the state of the battle. They stood a few meters apart, eyed each other up, and went in for the final round.

Cammo was at around sixty percent aura. Ruby was hovering over twenty.

Ruby slid an ammo cartridge marked with a cross into Crescent Rose.

It was over before Cammo could even take a step. Next thing she knew she was down on the floor, breathing hard.

"Victor... Ruby Rose..." Goodwitch declared. "Well, that was an incredibly flashy battle, but does anyone want to try to follow after that?" She glanced at her roster. "Blake? Want to make an attempt?"

"Sure," she shrugged. Calm and collected, that was her. She didn't even seem to bat an eye at the carnage that had just taken place. "Guess I have to..." she muttered, looking back at her teammates gently pushing her by the rear towards the arena.

"And your partner?" Ahab gulped. Crossed his fingers. Crossed his toes, arms and eyes.

"How about... Quincy?"

Goodwitch seemed a little perplexed by her choice, but gave it the okay. The giant hoisted himself to his feet and tried his best to slide through the rows of students without crushing anyone.

The two silent peacemakers of their teams, forced to fight by their teammates. Eido shivered. He sensed it again. That drowning, deadly aura.

There was a monster among their ranks.

* * *

**So yeah, Ruby vs. Cammo evidently ends in Ruby's favor. Not that Cammo isn't crazy strong or fast, but Ruby is seriously pure power when it comes to semblances. The green girl just can't compete. For the most part human adversaries won't be tricked the same way twice, especially a battle savvy Huntress like Ruby, so she just runs out of tricks too quickly to deal _enough_ damage.**

**A word on Cammo's semblance: it's designed to make her more powerful when people are cheering or booing or generally getting excited around her. Just thought I'd throw that out there.**

**I tend to write action scenes like a shounen manga or something, lots of twists and what I like to think of as clever moves. Hope you enjoyed and set your bets for the next battle!**

**P.S. I've noticed that I get more views if I upload these chapters in the morning. Fascinating, isn't it?**


	11. 2nd Versus

It was almost disorienting to look at. If you were to try and take a picture of the scene, you would have to tilt the camera to capture both combatants' faces. The sheer size of Quincy Modo on one end of the arena compared to the seemingly delicate flower that was Blake Belladonna on the other was almost comically disproportionate. In addition, the threatening weapon unfolding to peek over his shoulders was absolutely terrifying compared to the minute subtlety of Gambol Shroud. Her choice seemed practically suicidal. Why would she join the battle for the first time in the year only to go straight for the biggest fish around?

Was she overconfident?

"Begin!"

The fireworks began. Red dust rockets screamed towards her feet from the upper two launchers.

But she was already gone.

Ahab's eyes widened as he watched her display. While she didn't have Ruby's sheer speed nor Cammo's aggression, the black clad Huntress had a mind boggling way of effortlessly sliding on the battlefield. As explosions shook the earth mere inches from her position she darted around each incoming projectile, keeping her gaze fixated on her motionless target. That determination of hers was an intimidating force to reckon with.

Quincy smiled. They had planned for this. Eido had a plan for everything, and the giant would carry it out obediently.

All four cannons opened fire on the space between the two opponents, bursting into scarlet columns of flame. It was students like this that assured Glynda Goodwitch the expensive impact resistant tiling had been worth the Lien.

But when the smoke faded, Blake wasn't there. The explosions had caused him to lose track of her!

Of course, it was Eido's plan. He obviously hadn't accounted for the importance of visibility.

A sharp pain on the backside of his leg alerted him to her presence, and he whirled around to strike her. A launcher was clicked off of his harness and mechashifted into a sledgehammer in a split second, but his swing only struck empty air. Another attack, this time along his shoulder, but by the time he had turned to face her she had disappeared. It was unwise to lose focus against this type of fighter, especially considering how disadvantageous his size was. The mercurial attributes of her weapon and her gymnast's flexibility made it impossible to catch her at close quarters. She skirted around Quincy noiselessly, slipping between his massive limbs like a fox through the forest floor.

'No, not a fox,' thought Ahab. 'She's more like a cat. OH DAMN.' He watched in awe as she arched her back to slide under the giant's legs and opened fire on his exposed back.

Exposed? Not quite. Quincy smiled. Now they were back on course.

She rolled left to avoid a rocket to her right. Those snakelike barrels were near omniscient, giving him 360 degree coverage. Besides, despite that rather favorable trade and her thus far unbruised body, he was still over ninety five percent aura. Those years of labor and distorted body gave him crazy toughness as well.

Quincy was leading her like one leads a spider with a dust broom. She had to keep moving, lest she be torn apart by the destruction at her heels, every once in a while changing course to avoid a well placed explosion. She began to fire at him as she ran, but he used his hammer as a shield to mitigate the majority of the damage. He snatched a second weapon from the harness and switched both hands into rocket form.

"Phase two," sneered Eido, leaning back in his seat and placing his unsoiled shoes on the back of a Mohawk-sporting student's seat. "Commence."

As Quincy began the barrage, the unthinkable happened: Blake lost her footing. Time slowed to a crawl as she tumbled, her teammate's disbelieving mouths agape. She crashed to the ground, and the artillery converged on her.

'Sorry,' whispered Ahab, drawing his legs up to his body in shame.

The following explosion was deafening, excessive amounts of Burn dust piling on her, nearly suffocating her, and igniting in an instant. Goodwitch grimaced. That was a bit much for a sparring match, right? She referred to her Scroll, now displaying the sudden update on Blake's aura. Already thirty percent in one lucky strike.

Quincy waited. His dust supply was already rather depleted from the continuous fire. No visual, no firing. That was his new self imposed rule from now on.

She emerged from the smoke in a hurry, already on the move, already refocused on the giant. Her eyes were burning with anger. That had been no accident. She didn't make stupid mistakes.

It was his semblance.

"Impressive, isn't it?" chuckled Eido. "A flawless Semblance from such a lopsided guy. No visual effect, no nothing, just a sudden fall and you're out."

"Maybe he uses the 48-point buy system."

"Still, the Semblance of Gravity isn't something you can just fuck around with. There's always some spatial distortion involved. The fact that he can control it to this extent..." Eido fell into deep thought, or rather, scheming.

"Nothing comes without flaws," muttered Ahab. "That one 'perfect' maneuver spent more of his aura than she did. There's also the cooldown time to think about..."

"We'll do some special training to work on that. Such an amazing ability shouldn't have been left untended to for so long."

Blake shoved back into close range. If that was how he wanted to play, she would have to spend the majority of her time right next to that massive body. In retrospect, that was the best possible option: if he caused any reckless explosions he would be guaranteed catch himself in the flames. If he tried to catch her with his Semblance again he would also be immobilized.

He shifted the launchers in his hands back into sledgehammers. Even with the weighty head, he whirled them effortlessly. This was definitely jumping into the lion's den.

She went ahead and jumped.

Their combat was difficult to follow, partially obscured from the students by Quincy's girth, but it was clear Blake was back in the lead. She ran and slashed, fighting her fellow student with the same tactics she reserved for larger Grimm. He wasn't like the other kids, so she had to approach him differently. For now, at least, the explosions had stopped.

Quincy's tank gurgled, and he swapped his right hand hammer for another strapped to his back in one well practiced movement. He brought the head of the weapon down on the ground, and she ducked around instinctively to place his own body between herself and the impact. Upon contact, the tiling smashed to pieces in a neat little circle as a bright light gave way to another fiery blast. Quincy's aura shrank down to sixty percent.

Forgetting to act dignified for a moment, Goodwitch facepalmed.

In the stands, a chorus of jaws smacking the floor could be heard loud and clear.

Quincy didn't waste a second in switching hammers and swinging again. Blake stood frozen in fear as a chilling aura crashed over her. The situation was positively deadly, it wasn't a game anymore. She had to move, she had to escape, she had to-

The blow banged against the side of her skull and engulfed her face in flames.

...

"Good move, kitty cat," muttered Eido. Dust, he was spewing way too many villain cliches. Doesn't he know what a death flag is?

Quincy blinked. His hammer was stuck fast in the icy statue of Blake Belladonna, posed in a state of pure terror. A sharp pain in the back of his neck notified him of her temporary presence on his hunch, slashing away. He thrashed, in an attempt to throw her off, but she wrapped the ribbon of Gambol Shroud around his eyes and proceeded to fire point blank into his head. That worked far better than slashing, and his aura level finally began to fall in leaps and bounds. Ten seconds of continuous fire would do it.

A meaty hand interrupted her at the three second mark, abandoning his weapon embedded in her glacial figure and frantically snatching Blake off of his head. He tossed aside her limp body and swung, only to have his weapon pass through her like mist. Quincy reached back at the nuisance, but she springboarded off of his head and out of his reach. Opening the floodgates, he switched up his style and sprayed the floor of the amphitheater with wide, shotgun-like blasts of dust. Too slow. She was already behind him.

"Time's almost up," cackled the heir. "Better hurry up and finish him."

He swung with his free hand and punched straight through another gaseous replica. The cannons on his back penetrated the empty air behind him prematurely, and she took the chance to slash at his underbelly. Quincy let out a roar of pain and jumped up (to a rather unrealistic height for a Hunter of his massiveness) to bombard the earth below him. Three Blakes were waiting for him, and two became black splotches on the shattered tiles. The third barely escaped as the giant crashed back into the earth, sending shards of tile flying in all directions. She aimed right in between in his eyes.

A lurching sensation hit Blake like a truck, pinning her to the ground alongside the debris they had kicked up with their battling. She struggled under the suddenly increased gravity, but stopped as Quincy rose himself from his crouching position. Trembling under the pressure of both the cost and effect of his Semblance, he wrenched his hammer from the crumbled remains of the ice statue, collapsed by the overbearing force. He mashed the two weapons at hand into a singular block, then plucked a third cylinder from his harness and snapped it into place.

"You weren't going to fool me forever," he growled.

There it was. That icy cold, crushing depth of an aura. Hidden underneath the amiable navy blue of his soul was something darker, far darker than any human should endure. His eyes no longer shone brightly, but instead swirled into an abyssal black.

Quincy clicked his fourth and final weapon underneath the mass of metal he was assembling as a handle, working as quickly as he could through fingers trembling with rage so as to not waste any more of his aura. He raised his creation over his head: an enormous warhammer with three glowing red detonators on its head.

"I won't be deceived by you!" he bellowed, and brought it crashing down on Blake Belladonna's body.

The students in the audience looked away from the billowing flames as Quincy howled.

Gunshot. Gambol Shroud struck his neck from behind. Blake was breathing hard as the giant toppled forward and settled on the ground.

"That... was scary," whimpered Ruby.

"What a shame. Seems he went into the worst possible match up," grumbled Eido. "We'll have to work on his aura endurance."

"The match goes to Blake Belladonna," declared Goodwitch, raising her riding crop and Quincy's unconscious body off the remains of their impact proof tiling. Better report that to the headmaster. No, not him, someone who would bother to fix it. Ozpin might just be inclined to frame it. Sighing, she flipped her Scroll open.

"Well..." she hesitated. "We still have a lot of time left after those two battles. Does anyone want to..." She caught the pale white hand of Weiss Schnee amongst the mysteriously inked out Hunters. "Ah, Ms. Schnee. Truth is, I was going to call you if there wasn't a volunteer." What was with her roster today? Had she drunkenly decided to showcase team RWBY's talents for no apparent reason? What's more, they were all picking students from team ECQA...

"Thank you, ma'am. I'd like to fight with..." She didn't even say his name, just pointed in disgust.

"I'd be honored," smirked the heir.

* * *

**This battle is kind of sort of a cop out. Sure, Quincy is way stronger than Blake, especially one on one, but his limitations are more mental than anything. Blake is really frustrating to go against, and the big guy is, apparently, emotionally unstable. Add in the fact that he can only get a hit in by draining his power reserves and you've got a tough but simple fight. Dodge, attack, dodge, attack, kind of like a Destiny boss. Or really any MMO raid boss.**

**Quincy's big hammer is called Bell Tower. It's epic, but he'll probably never get a chance to hit anything with that, considering how stupidly OP it is. That's, like, three times the force it takes to break a room built to endure the fighting of the nation's most promising Hunters and Huntresses. KABOOM.  
**

**Also! Foreshadowing! Did you see what I did there, you know, with the aura? I'm super proud of it :DDDDDDDD Now our super convenient commentator is going to be fighting though, and Quincy's going straight to the infirmary, so this next battle will be even more impossible to understand.  
**

**Leave a review! Or don't. Still, a big thank you for bothering to read my self indulgent, feverish, sleep addled stories and I hope you can draw some enjoyment out of it!**


	12. 3rd Versus

The entire class had been watching in awe for the past... what, twenty minutes? While Goodwitch may not have seen the pattern, it was obvious to the rest of the students that teams RWBY and ECQA were having a grudge match. Though they had all been expecting it from past stellar performances, the score was somehow two to zero in the all girls team's favor, and only two sparring pairs remained.

The duo currently in the arena, Eido and Weiss, had a lot in common in the eyes of the audience. Both were rich and not afraid to show it, carried themselves with the same regal swagger, dressed in immaculate costumes; they were high class kids, no doubt about it. Even their hair was similar, long and wispy white strands in a neat, trailing ponytail. The resemblance was so uncanny, they could've been twins of differing gender.

But one thing was different. While the heiress radiated pure white, shining like an ice sculpture on display (the remains of Blake's ice clone were still present to compare and contrast), the heir was coated with jet black so smooth someone might as well have recently painted it directly onto his body. Their own contrasting palettes tried to overpower one other, drawing their territory lines like a game of Go.

This wasn't just a brawl between students. When these two got involved, it became a question of control. Legitimacy. Conquest.

This was a war.

"Please treat me kindly," sneered the heir, sporting his very vilest smile.

"Don't expect that kind of courtesy," she retorted. Just like any politicians, they would start with a mandatory verbal back and forth.

"Begin!"

...

Neither player moved a muscle. The students, who had been bracing for a sudden explosion of action, looked puzzled. All except Ahab, that is. He knew exactly what was going on. Eido wasn't the type to strike immediately. He was more the type to analyze and draw out a fight, slowly learn more about his opponent and bide his time. Weiss was likely similar, but the silence was evidently bothering her. The little hooded boy spotted a twitching of the eyes, a shifting of weight on her feet, whereas Eido was leaning coolly and confidently. He hadn't even drawn his weapon yet.

Weiss was the first to break their peace treaty, charging forwards to test the waters. Her stance was perfect: if he moved to strike her, she could retreat with one swift backwards lunge. If he moved to block, she could draw first blood without a hassle. Figuratively speaking of course. No one ever lost so much aura that they bled on the school grounds.

He raised his arms to his glasses and whipped them off smoothly. They whirled into shields and came up to guide the point of Myrtenaster gently to the side, followed by a quick step towards his opponent and a low kick towards her supporting leg. The sudden closeness startled her, and Weiss' trajectory was sent wildly of course as she leaped over the heir to salvage her position.

"Heels are a rather bold choice for the battlefield, don't you think?"

She turned to cast another insult, but her scornful mouth went limp mid-remark. The audience wore similar reactions.

No one had been informed of Eido's blindness yet, and now they were face to face with the crimson red orbs rolling freely in his sockets. Murmurs rushed through the crowd, rippling about the patiently seated students and throwing them into a commotion. Goodwitch gave them a chilling glare, then barked a quick "Settle down!" when the upset overwhelmed her.

"Well, that's to be expected," mumbled Cammo. "Why does he get all the attention anyway?"

"It's not a good idea to let your enemy impress you," said the heir, not wasting a second and darting after the white Huntress. He moved with his shields in a boxing stance, noticeably slower than the heiress' maneuvers. It took Weiss only one enormous leap to draw boundaries again between them.

She took a moment to regain her composure. Now it made sense why he surged straight towards her blade without hesitation: he wasn't afraid of what he couldn't see. His style was also rather... unique, a mix of boxing and aikido that made use of the strength and lightness of his shields.

Wasn't this rather dangerous? Sending a trained Huntress against a blind man? Could she really go all out against him with no regard for his well being?

And how was he able to keep up with her without his eyes?

Her next charge was far more tentative, hopping forwards gently to get in range. Weiss waved her hand and activated her semblance to place a sequence of glyphs on the arena tile, then took a single step forward and rocketed towards her target. Each glyph she passed over would divert her momentum as neccessary, and the zigzag path she followed brought her behind Eido.

He turned his head from side to side, as if searching for her. Her boot touched down on the final glyph, holding her in place before shooting her at his back, thrusting Myrtenaster forwards.

The silver ponytail whipped around over his shoulder, and there was a sound of metal on glass. Her strike was once again neutralized, but his wicked grin revealed more was to come. Punishment for this little show of disobedience.

He threw a right hook, shield in hand, and caught her on the cheek, sending the heiress careening off to the right. She generally landed, like Ruby, on her feet. This was one thing that RWBY had in common. Their agility and ability to avoid looking uncool in combat was almost unparalleled. Weiss refused to take her eye off her opponent even for a second. He still had tricks up his sleeve, she was sure of it.

He barreled in to strike her, but she plunged Myrtenaster to the space between his elbows. Immediately, without flinching, he snapped a shield down to block the pointed end of her weapon.

"Wrong choice, kiddo."

Ahab slapped a hand against his forehead. He really needed to stop with the villain one liners. Was he even doing it on purpose?

With one well shined shoe, he forced the shaft of the sword out of the way and launched another punch through the opening. She spluttered as the blow landed on the knot of her sash. Only three hits had connected so far, and she was already feeling the toll on her movements. The heir's adaptability clearly outclassed hers, every choice placing him in the exact right spot for a counter attack. How could a blind man being seeing the fight more clearly than her? Not to mention his strikes hurt like minor dust explosions.

That reminded her as she touched down once again, and she span Myrtenaster's chamber before settling on the Burn dust cartridge. 'Try to block this, you pompous ass.' She pulled the trigger, sending flames along her blade and striking dead on. He raised his shield to block, but another pull of the trigger blasted the volatile dust residue around the tiny surface area of Diplomatic Immunity. Eido took the full frontal attack, his aura meter dipping slightly as his defensive aura acted up to protect him from sure third degree burns.

His eyelids didn't even twitch, and he walked straight through the haze of flame to pummel her once again in the gut. She took the blow, but smiled shakily as a blue glyph popped up underneath the heir's oily soles and launched him into the air. He spun, keeping his orientation like a cat in free fall, but she clicked Myrtenaster's hilt once again and blasted Wind dust at him, ragdolling the poor guy towards the ceiling. Weiss set her blue glyph once again and leaped at his limp body. Her rapier's hilt caught ablaze once again as she closed in for the finishing blow.

His head jerked around to face her, a cruel, this time _intentionally_ sickening smile on his face. She gasped: had she miscalculated?

No, he couldn't possibly move his arms to block this blow. He just didn't need to.

The 'pupils' of his crimson globes focused on Weiss' own gaze. And glowed.

She was on a collision course. Even casting a glyph wouldn't divert her from this track in time. She summoned a shielding glyph between them as a last ditch effort.

Those laughing orbs dilated.

And fired.

The students averted their eyes from the glare, red light engulfing Weiss and forcing her to cover her own face. The blinding beam coated her outfit, reflecting off her crystalline dress and painting the walls of the arena bright scarlet. After a straight second of focused light, she finally dropped to the earth below.

Her aura meter stood at thirty percent.

"Neat trick, huh?" he cackled, landing deftly next to her collapsed body on the balls of his feet and brushing off his suit. "Honestly, you got me good with that launchpad, but it just wasn't enough."

He threw a vicious kick into her as she tried to struggle to her knees and sent her flying. The heiress coughed with pain and lay down against the wall of the arena. There it was again. As he struck her, she could feel an unknown black spirit seeping in through the contact point. He was channeling his aura into his attacks, addling her body from the inside. He wasn't pulling his punches in this spar, he wanted absolute conquest.

He strolled amiably towards her. "You wanna know how I could see through all those strikes you were throwing at me?"

Oh god, he was monologuing. But then again, she did want to know.

Weiss nodded limply.

He smiled widely, genuinely content. "It's my Semblance, you see? Didn't you think it was strange that a blind kid could be admitted to a school for Hunters? A job where you _have _to stay vigilant at all times? Even with my incredible sense of hearing and superior brain, it's a bit much to follow all those projectiles and fancy flying maneuvers you were using."

Good god, get to the point already. Weiss propped herself against the wall and crawled up to a standing position. She would have to be quick to make this work. To salvage this fight, she would have to outpace this fast track prodigy.

"Aurasensory. That's what they call it in the private school records. I can see other people's auras clear as day, as well as dust, Grimm essences and a few other things. My eyes may be missing, but I can see far beyond the realm most human beings confine themselves to." His tongue flicked across his front canines. "I could spot every one of your movements from a mile away with just the faintest fluctuation of your aura. You'd be surprised to know just how ingrained it is in everything we do."

"Even," he smirked, "those glyphs you're casting behind me right now." She drew a sharp breath. Found out so soon?

"You see? Nothing escapes my sight. I am the stronger. I am the untouchable. I am... GOD." Eido cackled, then erupted into hysterics and tossed his head back. Weiss' eyes narrowed.

The glyph released.

A single stone took flight, freed from the arena by Blake and Quincy's earlier duel and aimed by Weiss' careful calculations. It rocketed away from the blue glyph, then through an Ice glyph and then a Wind glyph, transforming into a deadly high speed projectile. There was a sharp cracking sound as it struck the crown of his skull, fragmenting into chunks of ice and immediately solidifying on his head. The heir fell back, headfirst, suddenly off balance.

Weiss charged forwards. One more time.

Eido raised one shield to block and thrust one arm out to break his fall. His neck was snapped back, unable to aim his laser

One shield and an offbalance target. Child's play. She ran Myrtenaster across his legs with full force and lightning speed, spending her whole vial of Burn dust in the process. His defending arm dropped slightly from the pain, and she jumped up and set a finishing blue glyph.

Strung up like a pig, awkwardly demonstrating a bridge stretch, he could only look on with his Semblance as she plunged down on his exposed chest, a falling star of blazing white aura.

The self proclaimed god fell to the shattered tile. Aura levels critical.

"The match goes to Weiss Schnee."

The stands dissolved into a huge cheer. Evidently Eido had been cast as the villain in this fight and the whole class had rooted for Weiss all along. Weiss gave her teammates a little smile, and they returned the gesture with several thumbs up, words of congratulation and strangling hugs.

"Hey, Ruby!" protested the heiress, but the little girl hung on tightly. Reluctantly, then contentedly, she accepted her team leader's affection.

* * *

Eido limped back to his own team, receiving a pat on the back from Ahab and a look of scorn from Cammo.

"So, what was the point of that?" she spat, oozing venom. "Showing off? Trying to upstage me?"

He waved her accusations to the side. "Well, a little bit of showing off, actually. Just proving to the class how strong we are. That's the point of this whole endeavor, you know?"

"Well, it certainly seems scripted that way..."

"Wait, so does that mean you set up the roster that way on purpose?" Ahab questioned in a low whisper. "Did you intend for Ruby to fight Cammo? How did you-"

"Just a little psychoanalysis on my part. That girl obviously doesn't get to pick her own fights, and Ruby's teammates are way too protective of her to send that child up against any of the stronger guys."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"But against Ruby, Cammo got to show off the best of her speed, strength and special skills. Same with Blake. She's a lot smarter than the others, and rather than challenge myself or pick on poor little Ahab, she relieved the workload for her team by finishing off Quincy. In that case," he said, casting a hand over the wreckage of the arena, "he could demonstrate just how powerful he was without seriously injuring his opponent and scaring off the other students. Hell, we even got to see an... interesting side of him thanks to that matchup."

"And Weiss?"

"She's the grudge bearing type. Between our sweet, innocent team leader and the 'incorrigible, ridiculous and downright rude Eido Pitch'," he spoke in falsetto, trying to mimic her voice, "she's obviously going to settle the score then and there. Thanks to that, I get to pew pew and have fun."

"Oi, that's not what we're here for, you conceited git. We needed to win that fight!"

"Winning a fight, or winning the war? Which is more important? In this case, I can toss her around without seeming too crazy strong, use her to instill a sense of humility around me. Watch, if I laugh everything off like it was nothing, it will make me seem more easygoing and approachable to the normal kids." He spotted a shifting burnt orange aura amongst his targets and grinned maliciously. "Then we might just be able to dabble in some recruitment plans. I always have a plan. You can't win the world unless you rig the game beforehand."

"You should probably ease up on those smile muscles. You've been going at it for, like, five straight minutes," drawled Cammo.

"Yeah, that fight was pretty short by our standards. You should be ashamed of yourself," chuckled the red hooded boy.

"Oh really? Let's see how long you last for."

Ahab returned a blank stare, then flipped open his scroll and checked the time. Another twenty five minutes until next period. Dust, why couldn't his teammates stall for longer?

Slowly, deliberately, he turned to steal a glance of team RWBY. A busty blonde stared back at him and waved, grinning. She was way too enthusiastic about this.

"So, who wants to take the next fight? Yang?"

* * *

**Eido doesn't have a reason to win, but he does have a reason to lose. That's about it for the fight. I know, Eido is probably the most overpowered character on the team and he's a lot subtler than his teammates, more conniving and channeling a lot of Sosuke Aizen. However, he definitely isn't the main character, nor is he an ideal hero. I leave it in your hands to figure out which personality is his real one and which is an act.  
**

**As for who would win if they fought each other with no bullshit, probably Eido. But Weiss undoubtedly gets a lot more powerful with time in the canon, so the playing field may just level off at some point.**

**So Ahab vs. Yang next time! Place your bets and leave a review maybe! Or not! Just have fun, because I know I am! That's why I'm overusing exclamation points!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	13. 4th Versus

**Another warning for old times sake: this chapter will contain gore. More parts of the story will also contain gore, you will see why in a second.**

* * *

Ahab's heart was beating out of his chest. Pulling his hood down to hide the blood in his cheeks, he shakily made his way to his place on the arena. Facing the flashiest RWBY team member was the worst possible choice for him, as the students were now leaning forward with interest. Yang was famous for being an impressive brawler, and with the show of the amazing fights prior students were getting excited to see just how she would show up her teammates.

Wait. Eido had planned all this, hadn't he? Make him face off in the most hyped up battle possible?

Ahab turned to face the malevolent leer of the heir and shot him the meanest look he could. The most he could manage was an angry pout. Eido obviously didn't react.

He staggered into position, gripping his arms in fear. Yang herself wasn't an overly intimidating person, but the gazes on his back burned through his hoodie and set him aflame. He felt an itch in the center of his spine and froze in place. This was torture, like waterboarding or an iron maiden, restricting him in an uncomfortable situation with the observation of his peers. He tried to take deep breaths, but a knot in his throat caught him by surprise and he coughed involuntarily.

"Say, is this really okay?"

He looked up. Yang was totally fine with the entire situation, cocking her head to the side and placing one hand on her hip confidently. How did they do it? Yang, Weiss, Eido, Cammo, how did they all deal with this kind of pressure? Weren't they feeling the same suffocation? Was he just a timid lamb amongst a pack of wolves?

No. He couldn't do that. He had worked damn hard to become a monster slayer. He had trained all his life for it. If he turned away from one fight, wouldn't that mean his father's work was for nothing?

He wasn't a waste. He wasn't just a pile of useless parts. He was a man.

"It's f-f-fine," he stammered. Well shit, there goes the man in him. He reached to his shoulder and pulled a tab, pulling on a long zipper that traced around his arm. He let the red sleeve drop to the ground and repeated the motion with the other side.

Oh god, that was embarrassing. Everyone could see his spindly arms. He crossed them in an attempt to cover his pale skin.

"Well, if you say so," Yang replied, unconvinced. She nodded to Goodwitch.

"Alright," spoke the professor. "Begin!"

The blonde exploded forwards like a bullet, closing the distance between them in a the span of a second. She launched her first volley of machine gun punches, managing to put a single hole in Ahab's scarlet hood as he ducked down to avoid the blast. She then executed a quick groundpound, scattering the loosened shards of tile, but Ahab put both feet together and sprang from his crouched position with an odd metallic clunk. He backflipped away and landing on all fours like a cat.

His agility and reaction time was, admittedly, very close to Blake's or Weiss', though lacking the sheer speed of Ruby's Semblance. Considering their teams' collective fighting styles, it almost seemed as if Ahab was a more suited member for team RWBY's high velocity flow than Yang. Ahab's maneuverability, even without any visible propulsion mechanism, was probably far superior to Yang's, while she seemed more intent on straight bumrushing him with excessively heavy damage.

But that wasn't going to get her anywhere.

She rushed after him again, but Ahab readied his palms and rolled around her meteor-esque charge. As she swung down at his miniature form, he laid his hand gently on her thigh.

Her smile warped into a grimace of pain as she felt a sharp object tear into her skin. Fuck, what was that? She looked down at her leg, checking the damage, and saw expansive bloodstains. No way. Did he... cut through her aura?

She looked back at the shorter boy, crouched several meters behind her, ready to receive another reckless advance. His eyes cut through the depths of the scarlet hood. Even though his knees were still quivering and he clamped down on his lip in frustration, his hands soaked in red were certain and intimidating. He didn't even seem to mind the warmth of the crimson stains, as if he knew the feeling like an old friend.

A trickle of blood slipped down his cheek. A deep red tongue slid over pale skin and lapped it up.

She switched to ranged attacks, hailing bullets on his position, but he saw the attack coming and dashed to the side. He circled her as she sprayed gunfire at him, neatly pockmarking the walls. Ahab had studied her attack pattern, and she was no sniper compared to her sister. He vaulted and planted both feet on the arena floor before springing a second time, spinning through the air and leaving threads of blood in the air like vapor trails. Bringing his hand close to his face, he prepared another palm strike.

Just finish her and it'll be over. Incapacitate her and they would all finally stop staring. His gaze locked onto her throat.

A shiver ran over her and she blasted herself backwards with Ember Celica's recoil. He crashed where she had previously stood with the unseen sound of steel on steel. Where was he hiding his weapon? He'd already removed his sleeves, so was he using aura strikes like his partner? But she had clearly felt a piercing sensation.

She checked her leg. No more bleeding. Her aura had likely healed it up already.

She assumed a boxing stance and moved in to trade blows. Ahab obliged, and raised his bloodstained palms in kind. They met in the center of the arena and began a flurry of strikes and counterstrikes, Yang's battering barely grazing Ahab. The unarmed boy was minimizing his losses for all he was worth, striking her elbows and forearms, but each destructive hit was bound to hurt even if he knocked it to the side. Her pure strength was formidable, and he could only keep up for so long.

Goodwitch narrowed her eyes. The public records didn't reveal his weapon qualities, but every so often she could hear a metallic clanging from within their rapid exchange, as if both students were wielding weapons. Even though their aura levels were still both over 75%, excessive amounts of blood were being spilled for no discernible reason. Should she stop the match? That would be the kindest idea, the most becoming of a teacher, but she let it continue. She needed to see what this child was capable of. Something about unsolved mysteries piqued her interest, and she was bent on figuring out the inner workings of the child named Ahab Omobi.

Ahab went for another opening in her offense, thrusting his palm flat against her stomach and invoking the same needle like feeling. Yang almost heaved. The sense of being gutted in the middle of the arena was too strong. Conversely, her opponent was still more concerned with the audience than her strikes, even though his aura was far further down the line than hers.

He approached her with another palm strike and she frantically sunk her fist into it. A ping.

Yang reeled mentally. This frail looking kid had caught her straight punch head on. Where was he getting this stability?

Then his aura dropped a tic. His eyes widened in fear.

She grinned. "Gotcha."

Yang unloaded Ember Celica's entire clip into Ahab's outstretched hand. Stupid kid, there was no point in putting himself in the line of fire like that. Stop trying to look cool and sit your ass down. His eyes widened as his dominant arm erupted into flame...

...And fell to pieces. Each bullet tore at his flesh and muscle like paper. It took her a second to realize what she had done, but by then his entire arm was blown to smithereens up past the elbow. All that remained was one shining harpoon connected to his shoulder by a hinged rod, bits of gore clinging to its shaft like meat on a chicken bone. The rest of his body was splattered on the arena floor in a wide arc.

Goodwitch, who had seen many battles turn ugly like this, did not throw up. She was repulsed, but her fascination forced her to watch on. The students were not so enthusiastic about it.

Ahab's jaw tightened. His weapon had been drawn for him. He was exposed. He had to hide it, finish the job.

Finish her.

He began to press the attack again, swinging the harpoon deftly on its hinge as if it was still part of his body. Now the trade was very different, as his hinge gave him a much fuller range of motion on his weapon. The addition of the metal harpoon opened up a whole slew of options for him: block, parry, things he couldn't do with his bare flesh.

Yang fought on, trying her hardest to focus on his movements without looking directly at the disgusting weapon. How can someone fight with their own body like that? How can anyone deal with that kind of pain?

She prepped another heavy punch and aimed at his chest. For a split second, she had an open shot. She could end the fight here, get him some medical treatment and keep this hell from going on any longer. But she faltered. Was it worth it if he might die?

The chance came and went, and Ahab thrust his bloody yet intact palm at her. She leaned back to avoid catching another painful palm strike to the face and _freaked out_ as another jagged harpoon burst from his skin. So _that's_ how he had been delivering those gutwrenchingly cruel wounds.

Yang recoil-jumped away as he swung a low kick at her feet and tried long range again. Catching him off guard this time, she buried several holes in his legs, not firing a single bullet on the arm he raised to shield his face. He rolled to face her, not caring for the wounds, and crouched in a starting track position. A metallic clunk was heard, and he sprang after her as if he were launched from a cannon.

Cammo covered her gaping mouth. It was only for a split second, but she could see the soles of his feet ripping apart and a long titanium shaft extending from his leg.

Cornering her against the wall of the arena, he surged into close quarters with a strange new determination. He was scared, oh so scared, just as frightened as she was. He just wanted to finish the match. Yang gasped at the tears in his eyes, but the blood red hood fell over his face to conceal them soon enough. A wicked harpoon head came flying at her.

They went into another close combat session, this time with Ahab attacking and Yang counterattacking. The hinges in place of his elbows effectively doubled the unpredictability of his strikes, turning the boy into a maelstrom of ragged metal. His elbow shattered and bent backwards as he picked up the pace, freeing up his left arm's joints as well and making Yang break into a sweat. The mental pressure of slowly watching her opponent deteriorate before her eyes was way too much to be dealing with for a sixteen year old. Every once in a while they would each get a blow in, him gradually lowering her aura and her gradually whittling away at his body.

Wait, why wasn't his aura going down?

Eido grinned. "I see..."

Yang thought hard. Her semblance was ready. She could blow him into the red zone with one hit, even from his current aura levels. But would he recover? The blonde brawler wasn't ready to gamble with another person's life, not again. She wouldn't do it.

Ahab sank his harpoon into her hair. She was paralyzed by the sudden shock as he dragged her to the ground and pinned her there by those long, golden locks.

Fuck, that hurt. Ever been jerked around by your hair? Not fun.

"What's wrong?" he whispered, his face settling into a crazy, fear invoked grin inside his hood. "Have you never seen another person bleed before?" He giggled nervously, accidentally dribbling blood on her face. She flinched.

Hands off, hands off, HANDS OFF.

"Are you scared?" he asked, his lips trembling.

When she opened her eyes again, they were deep red, mirroring the color of his clothing.

"As... IF!"

She punched straight through his shoulder, sending the harpoon flying with his flesh. So it only went up to his torso, huh.

He stomped on her, and she cried out in pain. There was another one in his leg? He springboarded off of her, letting her take his recoil as well, and descended by the arena wall to pick up his arm.

As blood flowed from his wounds, his movements became more and more sluggish. No good, he needed more juice. His aura began to burn down, and red threads of muscle bridged the gap between his two halves. Within seconds, those threads span together into a thick wall of flesh, sealing his arm back onto his body.

Yang struggled to her feet, her hair almost ablaze with her concentrated fury. Ahab swung his harpoon appendage around, still clutching a few golden strands of hair. They leaned forward and charged.

Both opponents collapsed to the ground on their first step.

Students who had the stomach to watch the whole scene through let their jaws drop.

"This match... is a tie," Goodwitch stammered. She was never less than absolutely sure of her words, but even she wasn't immune to the horror splayed out over the arena. "Class is adjourned for today. Go to your next lesson."

Students filed out of the amphitheater silently, on their way to the changing rooms to get back in their regular uniforms. Goodwitch whipped out her Scroll and called the academy's... clean up crew. "Someone get Ms. Xiao Long to the infirmary, and... pick up the pieces."

"Don't worry about him, professor," called Eido with an understanding grin. "It's just double aura deprivation. Throw him in a bucket or something, he'll put himself together again."

As usual, the heir was one step ahead.

* * *

**Look, I'm a gross guy. What can I say.**

**So, weapon explanations again! Ahab's weapon is Titanium Vengeance, a set of titanium supports inside his arms and legs which take the place of most of his major bones. Each support is tipped with one wicked ass harpoon and has a hinge set in the elbow/knee region, swinging a full 300something degrees, as well as being capable of extending a maximum 5 extra inches. The pair in his legs is also equipped with a firing mechanism, so he can use his legs for launch himself around _or _hook onto something from afar. The lower harpoons can be reeled back in, so no worries on losing projectiles in some low level goon. The whole thing isn't too heavy, and each branch is firmly attached around the spot his appendage meets the central body (shoulders and thighs).**

**Yeah, to use it fully he needs to get his hands kinda dirty. It's not super convenient, but I wanted a character who uses something closer to unarmed combat than most RWBY characters. Besides, most RWBY weapons aren't very convenient, so screw it.**

**Why is Ahab's power so fucked up? Read on, I guess... I promise I won't be super dark the whole time and throw in some lazy/filler chapters.  
**

**Also, leave a review :D Well, you don't have to, but it would certainly be nice. Thanks for reading my work and have a good day!**


	14. Recovery

Shrieking. A child, wading through a sea of red, expanding into infinity. Crying, snot dripping from his nose and down his cheeks. Disgusting. Ahab reached out to touch him, but as soon as he felt the infant's soft skin it began to rip away from reality. More shrieking. He jerked his hand back in surprise only to see his arm disintegrate away in turn, replaced by a jagged metal blade. The child lunged at him, his decaying limbs now covered in claws glistening with ichor and silver.

Ahab struck him down in one blow, trying to pay no heed to its still childlike screams. Its original face floated up through the bloody liquid, mouthing curses.

A hand gripped his ankle, shredding pale flesh from its metal supports. Ahab stomped on it, but the claws locked around his leg began to drag him down. More grasping palms lifted out of the red sea, clutching at the air expectantly, searching for him. Every one independently hunting him.

Another hand got a hold on his thigh, then another, then another. He sank up to his shoulders. A feeding frenzy was taking place just beneath the surface.

He screamed, but the deep red liquid flooded into his mouth, staining his palette with a metallic taste. He couldn't breathe. A set of claws grasped his throat. He could feel his body burning to ashes beneath his neck, crawling up his cheeks.

He descended into the bloodbath.

A soft hand reached through the gloom and grabbed his. Golden eyes locked onto his slowly reddening vision.

* * *

"AH!"

Ahab sat up suddenly, gasping for air. He placed a hand over his heart, breathing hard.

A dream. It was all a dream.

If there was a god, he obviously had a sick sense of foreshadowing.

He turned from side to side, scanning his surroundings. First off, he was naked. Oh shit, was this one of those pass out drunk moments where he would wake up and realize he had embarrassed himself for life, lost his V-card and become a father? Was a baby going to turn up in the dorm in nine months? Who was the mother?

He slapped his cheeks. That was the dumbest thing he had ever thought of. Second dumbest, probably.

The sterile scent of medical equipment and design conformity filled his nostrils. Stale daylight filtered in through a window overlooking a shabby old garden outside with no other sources of illumination available. Of course, he was in the medical ward. Naked in the medical ward.

Also in a long plastic tub, like those trays that corpses are stretched over in the morgue. Rather disconcerting, considering it was a see through plastic tub and he was naked. Besides the tub, he was laid on a hospital bed, most likely as a formality. It would have seemed rude if they stowed his container in a corner or, worse yet, in a numbered cabinet in a cold room. _Was_ there a morgue at this school? Despite going over the map several times before initiation, he just couldn't remember. His memory was, in contrast to Eido's sea of knowledge, more like a leaky bucket than anything.

Reaching over his head and pulling the pillow from its place, he rested it over his *ahem* to protect his modesty and settled into his plastic confines. He could wait here until given leave to escape. That would be the polite thing to do.

What was the deal with medical facilities and uncomfortable amenities? The pillow looked like the kind one might receive for sleeping on a dustplane, with a thread count of negative two and stuffed with cotton swabs. The mattress too was likely designed for battlefield attention or something. Maybe that was the idea: by getting students used to the lack of comfort in warzones, the staff could mentally prepare young Hunters- and Huntresses-in-training for away missions and the like.

He sat up to nod his head pensively when he heard the sound of pattering footsteps racing down a tiled corridor. The practically two-ply curtain was flung open and Cammo Deuce burst through.

"OHMIGOD I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU!" she cried, nearly jumping on him with her momentum. "Oh, you wouldn't believe those nurses! They kept saying you weren't in a stable state, I was so scared that my cute little trap might be scarred or some-"

She looked down at his crossed legs, tastefully shielded by the pillow. He blushed hard enough to make steam rise off of his face, frozen in terror..

"Oh, wait, never mind."

She shut the curtain.

"What the fu~" His voice cracked as he gasped for air. Not this again.

"Just tell me when you're done in there, okay? Take your time."

"I c-c-c-c-c-" he choked. Okay, think rationally about this. Where were his clothes? His hoodie, he needed his hoodie more than ever now. His mind jostled and scrambled frantically in an attempt to locate some sort of cover.

"Ahab? You okay?" Eido walked straight through the curtain.

Every hair on Ahab's body stood on end.

"OUT!"

* * *

"So, are you going to tell us what all that was about?" Eido asked, a red hand mark lingering on his face. What a shame the heir didn't keep his Semblance on at all times.

"Y-y-you guys barged in on me like... like..."

"Hey, we said we're sorry, right?" Cammo retorted. "Still, I'm glad to see you're okay. Not even a scratch." She cackled to herself, "Kekeke, my perfect trap will remain pristine for all eternity..."

"How could we have known that you had zero clothes on? And why'd you hit _me_, of all people? You'd hit a blind man? I'm ashamed to be your partner, Ahab."

"Sh-sh-sh-" hissed the little boy, but the words wouldn't come out. 'Shut up' was probably the message, but just recalling the incident made him want to bang his head against a wall in embarrassment. They had found his clothes on the windowsill of all places. Not even a single drop of blood remained on the red fabric, though he wouldn't be able to see it anyway if there was.

"But that doesn't really matter, now does it?" said Eido with a sly grin. "Though I'm sure if you asked..."

"I d-don't even want to know who you're t-t-talking about!" Ahab barked.

Eido leaned forward in his crappy plastic waiting chair, threading his fingers together Gendo Ikari-style. "What I want to know about is what happened during that fight between you and Yang Xiao Long. Save it," he warned as Ahab pulled his hood down in defiance. "This is important to our cohesiveness as a team. You're our team leader, right?"

Ahab hesitated, but cringed as Eido pulled his shades down and leaned in close. Whenever his partner turned to face someone like a normal person there was definitely a deeper meaning behind it, seeing as he made a point to move in when he physically couldn't make eye contact. The heir's crimson orbs swirled to face forward like a row of soldiers standing attention. He had shared _his_ deepest secrets with Ahab. He had trusted Ahab with everything.

Why couldn't he trust him back?

...

"You're not going to tell anyone, are you? Not the teachers, at least?"

"These lips are tight as Cammo's."

"Eww, what the Dust is wrong with you."

Ahab curled up, pulling his knees into his chest.

"Fine. Just so you know, I never lied to you. I really did live with my dad in the mountains, I didn't know girls existed and all that. But..." he paused, twiddling his thumbs. "...I didn't tell you the whole story.

"When I was younger, my dad trained me to fight Grimm. We lived smack right in the middle of a huge forest, so there were always live targets for us to practice on. My dad was an amazing hunter, even while retired, and thanks to him I never got hurt a single time during our training. Maybe he was a bit too protective of me, because it made me feel like a king. I thought I was some sort of prodigy, untouchable, godly.

"So one day I went out on my own. I was a cocky little shit, and the very first Grimm I decided to challenge on my own was a Deathstalker. Didn't even last, what, thirty seconds? That monster tore me to pieces. Literally. I was in pieces.

"But I didn't die. It's fucked up, right?" he laughed awkwardly. "Going through something like that and surviving? I pretty much deserved to die, so it was almost unfair when I came back. Why didn't I die, right? Why would I keep living through that torture? I just lay there for hours, and eventually woke up totally fine on the forest floor.

"Turns out, the incident messed up my aura. Thanks to my stupidity, I can't manifest a defensive aura, almost like the secret's locked away in the back my mind and I can't access it. Then again, I do have that super useful healing ability. My aura can patch me up so well that I can stay alive even with my brain in twenty separate pieces. I just pass out and everything falls back into place for me."

Ahab raised his hands in surrender. "And that's the end of my story. Not as boring as I let on, I guess?"

"That's crazy," Cammo said, stating the obvious.

"Well, not really," Eido mused. "You know how a person's aura is supposed to be a representation of their personality or soul? Anyone's values can change over time and evolve. It's not incredibly common, but there are some cases of children being born with their aura one color, only to shift and settle into an entirely different one over time. The reason most people have static auras despite maturing and experiencing life is because their true selves don't change so dramatically that their aura color entirely shifts from one side of the color wheel to the other."

'What am I, a rare archaeological find?' Ahab wondered, feeling his face heat up as they critiqued his soul and life story. His teammates were ridiculously rational for some reason around him. Dust, was he really the only one freaking out over his aura's grotesqueness?

"Aaah, I see," Cammo added. "So in this case it's about his aura attributes. Some kids are definitely better at certain kinds of aura manipulation than others. I know I can take more hits than you, and you can use yours to hit harder than me."

"Exactly. This sudden shift in mindsets came from some strong, primal urge to survive, somehow overpowering death itself and changing you as a person into the man of questionable gender identity you are today."

"It isn't really much of a question..." Ahab muttered. His eyebrows shot up, half in sudden clarity and half in excitement at a chance to change the topic. "Oh yeah, what happened to the girl?"

"Which girl... ah, you mean Yang? The blonde one? She's in the infirmary."

Ahab looked around, expecting to see her curvy silhouette through the pale blue curtains. Cammo laughed and said, "No, no, I mean the school infirmary. Back in the school building, with Quincy." Upon receiving another blank stare, she elaborated. "Remember, you were, as you put it, _literally in pieces_ by the end of that fight. They put all your parts in a plastic tub and carried you off to this slightly more... removed site. You're essentially in the storage shed right now."

With an incredulous shake of the head, Ahab stood up and walked through the curtains. Brooms and mops lined the walls alongside slightly fancier cleaning robots and machinery. That stale smell of medical doodads had actually been a false positive from cleaning detergents. The boy felt as if he were played for a fool. Yang was probably in a long, luxurious bed with scented candles and surrounded by her friends.

"So they stuck me with the rest of the useless equipment..."

"Don't think about it that way," Eido encouraged him. "It's just for the others, it doesn't help sick people much when they're in the same room as a soup of Ahab."

"C'mon, now. Let's go visit Quincy."

* * *

**Oh deary me, I forgot something in an earlier chapter.**

**That's right, more weapon descriptions! Eido's sunglasses/shields are only one half of the destructive force that is the heir of Pitch Corporations. His ocular placeholders are titled Crimson Omniscience, and they're essentially two orbs that fire laser beams! As if he wasn't op enough... but we've already seen Penny using a pretty huge laser cannon in the canon (haha punnery) and I thought that even on a smaller scale he could use them quite efficiently. A few handicaps: he cannot fire for more than one second at a time (think Yuuga Aoyama from Boku No Hero Academia) before running into a short cooldown period, cos high intensity lasers in a teeny tiny metal ball aren't very cripple friendly, and he cannot aim the orbs themselves in his head while he is firing. Normally he can rotate them in all directions without moving his head, but once he turns on the heat he has to work out his neck a little.  
**

**Also, more backstory!**

**Hope you gained some level of enjoyment from reading my work. Leave a review (or don't, it's n-n-not like I want you to or anything) and have a good day :)**


	15. Modo

"..."

"..."

Yang and Ahab's eyes flitted over one another, not daring to hold a stare for too long. He had been right: her repose was much more luxurious than a plastic tub in the storage shed. Beacon's medical beds were more or less queen-size memory foam mattresses, as one might expect of such an elite school. The curtains hung around her were a warm pink rather than a sickly blue, comforting like a mother's embrace. Her teammates were at her bedside, Ruby holding a little plate of comfort pancakes that Yang had been digging into contentedly before he entered the room. They all turned to see where Yang was looking, only to break into various expressions of apprehension.

Ahab eyed the pile of pillows built up under her blonde locks and bit his lower lip. It was worse than he had expected. Was the universe just trying to make fun of him?

He drew his scarf tighter, practically tasting the red fabric. Their eyes locked onto him as he walked around Yang's stupidly spacious bed ('Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid...') and slipped through Quincy's curtain.

"Hey, Qu-Quincy," he whispered.

The giant smiled back at him. Good lord, he managed to take up the entirety of the bed with his gigantic frame, and his longer arm was even dangling off the side. What the hell did he eat as a kid to become this huge? Steroids? Wait, he was a church kid...

"You do not have to force yourself, Ahab," Quincy rumbled warmly. "I am only happy when my teammates are happy. Besides, that was a rather... shameful side of myself I showed you there."

Ahab snorted, quietly, so as not to attract any more attention from the girls. "You wouldn't be saying that if you saw my fight. I bet you a thousand Lien that I'm more screwed up than you."

"I have no desire for those material things," Quincy assured him, waving his hand dismissively. "But I just... cannot forgive myself for doing such violent acts. It has always been that way since I was very young. I get far too angry over little things. Father Rath told me it was some kind of hormone imbalance, and he did his best to teach me how to cope with my condition but..."

"Well, I guess that would be the worst possible hell for you. Hurting other people just doesn't work with your regular character."

"Indeed," the giant nodded solemnly, wringing his enormous, uneven hands. His callouses fit together perfectly, the grooves running alongside each other like symmetrical ripples. He must do this a lot to mold that elephant-like skin into such a shape. How severe was this condition that it could worry the eternally beaming Quincy Modo?

He certainly hadn't been beaming back then...

Quincy raised his gaze to meet Ahab's, those clear blue eyes piercing through the darkness under his team leader's red hood. He blushed furiously and grabbed at the stringy black hair which fell over his eyes.

"W-w-well, you know... uh..." he stuttered, playing with his hair and growing suddenly wary of the next bed over. Were they listening? Ahab listened hard and waited for them to begin a rather heated discussion in typical RWBY style.

He leaned in, placing one knee on the giant's bed where he could find space. He leaned into Quincy's ear and cupped his hands. The hunchback turned his head to pay polite attention to his friend, but Ahab pushed his cheek away so he couldn't see his team leader's crimson face. Quincy smiled gently and dutifully closed his eyes. His leader could be quite the handful.

"I think... I'm sure that no matter how far you go, we won't leave you behind. Me, and Eido, and Cammo. We'll be your f-f-" he stammered, as if the word was almost too embarrassing to say out loud. "F-friends, even if you don't think you deserve it." He backed up quickly and waited cautiously for the reply.

Quincy's mouth opened silently in surprise, then closed and curled into a smile. "Honestly, what are you talking about," he chuckled, eyes still closed in consideration. "Of course we are friends already. Why would I think I do not deserve the company of you three? I am a man of God, after all."

Ahab pouted. Quincy was being evasive for his sake. Was it really okay if Quincy only smiled for his teammates' peace of mind? Was it a real smile if it was only a smile on the surface? Some sort of twisted blackmail, like threatening him by tying a kitten to a stake if he refused to laugh it all off?

Was smiling for his friends really the only way to help him?

Eido surged through the curtain. He stated, far bolder than Ahab, "You don't have to keep up appearances around us. We're only happy when our teammates are honest." His tone was stern and harsh, a father reprimanding his lying son. "_You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor_, Quincy."

The giant's eyes shot open, and Ahab stumbled backwards over the edge of the mattress, frantically waving his hands to keep him from seeing his face in full bloom. He gave a little "Eek!" as he fell, his hood tumbling off his black shag. The back of his head smacked against the tile, landing outside of the curtain.

"You really want that?" Quincy almost growled, sitting up to look the heir in the eye. Eido was certainly not short, but he stood stalwart against the chilly blue aura he felt against his face like a bull's hot breath. So cold it burned, so deep it made his stomach churn, so dark he felt his knees tremble before it. This was his true face, an enraged demon surging up from the depths.

"Did you even hear me?" cackled the heir with confidence. "You won't be able to scare me off with just this."

He wasn't scary. At least, not as scary as Eido himself. The silver haired boy knew that.

Famous leaders in history were said to have kept lions, bears and even Grimm as pets. The heir could top them all. He could tame Rage itself.

Quincy blinked, then shook the malice off of his face. His condition had triggered without him even noticing. The heir was a formidable man, making him angrier than anyone else with just a single word. Yet, he also made him feel relieved.

"You... you are a good man, Master Pitch." Quincy bowed his head ever so slightly, beaming widely again.

"Master? Oooh, I like the sound of that." Eido rubbed his hands together in glee. "But remember, you don't need to smile when you don't want to. We'll be okay with your temper tantrums, just make sure you get them out of your system. A little pillow-punching every once in a while isn't as much of a sin as lying to your allies."

The giant nodded, then collapsed on his bed lazily. "Well, you will have to give me leave for rest. I used up a rather considerable amount of aura in that fight, and even sustained a few bullet wounds."

"I understand," Eido replied politely. "It must have been selfish of us to come visit you in this condition just to calm our own imaginations. We'll leave you to your rest."

"Many thanks. Though this visit was quite considerate in its own way."

A rapid clacking sound was heard approaching the infirmary.

"Ah, brace yourself," Eido warned. Cammo leapt through the curtains from the foot of the bed to land on Quincy's stomach, nearly knocking the air out of him.

"Hey Quince! You won't believe what I had to go through just now to see you, oh man! Apparently we're not allowed to bring weapons into the infirmary wing, even though..." She shot Eido a look, and he returned a faux gloating glance over his sunglasses. "Anyway, I had to leave Nemean Grin behind, but they were worried that I might 'disturb the patients'," she said, slipping into a goofy voice and indicating air quotes over her head. "I was, like, 'Well, I'm not here to see any of them, am I?' How many injured kids could possibly be in there, anyway? It's not like this academy gets extremely dangerous a week into the school year. That's around third quarter or something. Anyway, wait, what was I saying?"

Quincy frowned at the green girl straddling his midsection. "That pose is not fitting for a young lady, Ms. Deuce."

"Aaaah jeez, there you go again with all that bullshit," she spat. "Just let me have a little fun and pay my respects or something to my severely injured friend. Wait, paying respects is for dead people, right?"

His brow furrowed, and he sat up in bed again, causing the frame to creak under his weight and tipping her over. She fell into his lap, and he looked down at her and glared.

"I am asking you to get off of me, Ms. Deuce," he hissed with the cool aura of Glynda Goodwitch. He looked ready to crush her.

Her eyes widened as she looked up. Quincy was... different somehow. The empress grinned wide.

"Now this is more like it..." she sneered, swinging her legs up over his lopsided shoulders. She hoisted herself up and worked her way around into her seat on his neck. "No more pure-pure church boy, huh? Thank god for that, if anything."

A vein bulged on his left temple and he reached over his shoulder to grab her by the scruff of her collar. He dangled her in front of his smashed nose and growled low. She smirked back.

His arm spasmed. He raised a fist.

And flicked her in the forehead.

"OW!" she yelped. "Dust, that was way too hard!"

He crossed his arms and huffed, letting her down off of the bed. "That is what you get for insulting the church. Unfortunately, my ideals keep me from going further with your punishment."

"Oh? You wanna get rough?" she dared, rubbing her neck where her smock dress had cut into her throat. "I'm down for a little of that!"

Eido raised his eyebrows and smiled his usual cruel grin. All of a sudden, both Cammo and Quincy were showing their meaner sides.

Neither one could be happier.

"Excuse me, but could you guys keep it down?" Weiss snapped, parting the light pink curtains.

The whole group turned to look at the intruder, firing up a collective aura of BUTT OUT LADY. Ahab rubbed his head and groaned, sitting up on the floor.

"Quincy, what the hell was that about?"

His skull wedged firmly in between the heiress' thighs. The fringe of her skirt tickled his nose.

"Ah," Cammo said, deadpan.

"Ah," Eido echoed.

"Ah," Yang added.

Quincy expressed his discontent by making a tsk-tsking motion with his fingers.

Blake just stared blankly at the scene.

Ruby's eyes grew to the size of saucers.

The two students both turned bright red.

* * *

**HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHA SUDDEN BAD ROMCOM ANIME DEVELOPMENT I SUCK YES I KNOW  
**

**Also, some more insight into Quincy's character. Expect him to be less of a yes-man and more of a verbally active character. I actually like how this chapter turned out for some strange reason. It just opens up so much more banter, if I evER GET TO IT AAAGH**

**I have a bad habit of writing stories while visualizing the actual scene in my head. Does this detract from the story? Please feel free to criticize in a review, it really does help. Remember to tell me how much you LOVE the story! No really! Go ahead! Okay, you don't really have to :P**

**Maybe leave a review though: do you think the story's way too heavy handed now? Do you think Quincy's character change was for the better or the worse? Was the skirt bit really necessary? Either way,****** I hope you had as much fun reading as I had writing.** Have a good day!**


	16. Reconciliation

Ruby and Yang dragged a furious Weiss out of the infirmary by her armpits. Cammo followed along, smirking subtly at the rage of the heiress but attempting to make amends by shouting over her already shrill screaming. Eido followed with actual diplomatic intent, nodding a quick goodbye to the giant in his bed. Quincy waved goodbye ineffectively, his eyes shining in a way the heir had yet to see.

Ahab struggled out from beneath the giant's cramped bed. Dust, that white haired girl could be scarier than Yang when she wanted to be.

Speaking of Yang...

The blonde haired girl was the only RWBY member remaining in the infirmary, being confined to her bed. With both curtains wide open, the three Hunters stared each other down in another awkward silence.

Yang refused to crack a smile or a joke to ease the mood. Straying from her lighthearted personality, she stood her ground firmly. Well, not standing, as she was in bed.

She still remembered their fight. Looking into his hood, she still saw those bloodstained irises. She still saw the fear and terror in his eyes, as if a reflection of her own emotions. Why was she afraid? Something about his fighting style just freaked her out, as if she had been pursuing a cornered rat, fighting for its life.

To her, sparring was just training. She had never feared for her life on Beacon grounds, being confident enough in her own strength and the safety regulations to strut her combat abilities whenever she had the chance. The little red hooded Hunter was different. He was terrified by any sort of confrontation.

The more she looked at his slim figure, garments far too large for his stature draping off of his frame, the more he reminded her of Ruby. His hood was only a slightly darker shade of red than her sister's and his hair was lacking the slight red hues at the tip, but that might as well have been the only difference. Oh yeah, and he looked way paler. She leaned in for a closer look. Was he sick or something?

Ahab blushed as Yang's inspection continued. What should he do now? The blonde was glaring at him as if trying to call upon the power of Eido's lasers and bore a hole through him. He drew his knees closer to his body and began to quiver all over.

Yang's eyes narrowed. There it was again. As soon as she got too close he retreated. It was like watching a new animal at the zoo, too shy to come anywhere near the spectators. She was surprised he didn't slink back under the bed. She shifted her attention to the occupant of the adjacent mattress, who smiled back in return.

"Would you kindly stop staring at our team leader's body? He is rather uncomfortable around other people."

"What?" she said with a start, the giant's words breaking her out of the one sided staring contest. "Oh, sure, sorry about that." She ran a finger through her hair casually, trying to gloss over the whole thing. Come to think of it, she hadn't ever formally met each member of Team ECQA yet. Well, she didn't usually do things formally, but that still wasn't a very good first impression.

She held out a hand over the gap between their beds instinctively, then put it away when she noticed that even with the abnormal length of his limbs, they would never manage a handshake. "I don't think we've met before," she began. "I'm Yang."

"Yang..?"

"Yang Xiao Long," she sighed, grudgingly offering her full name to the hunchback. It was a smart call to reacquaint herself in this way, because _dust_ was this guy formal.

He extended his own hand to mimic her. "Hello, Ms. Xiao Long. I am Quincy Modo." Yang snickered and leaned over the edge of the bed to attempt a light fist bump. Best they could do for now, but it made him smile even wider.

"So Quincy, that was a pretty amazing fight you had back there. I've never seen that kind of weapon before. Care to explain how it works?"

"Ah, I did hear that you were your team's heaviest hitter. Fair enough, I will share my secrets." He looked around for a moment, then spotted his weapon lying on an unfortunately small, pitifully creaking bedside table. He hoisted it off the poor furniture, causing the bed to groan under its weight, and plucked one hammer from its place on the harness.

As Quincy began his demonstration, Ahab tried to slowly slip away from the giant's bedside. Yang, however, shot him a quick glance which caused him to drop right back down to the floor and curl into a ball of red fabric once again. She wasn't trusting him out of her sight until she could figure out just what was wrong with him.

What was the horrible illness that plagued the body of Ahab Omobi?

"You see, this tank of dust at the bottom runs through pipes into these four recharge points on the main body. When attached, each individual rocket launcher clips into place firmly and opens up a connection between its own reserves and the main tank. It can then fire directly from the source or be taken off and fired multiple times. It also has a few different functions..."

Quincy rambled on and Yang grimaced. Channeling his inner sermoner, Quincy might have been one of the most dangerous lecturers she had ever encountered, perhaps even rivaling Professor Port in this field. She fought to keep her eyelids aloft and searched for an opportunity to divert the conversation flow.

"You can shift between each of the three modes by fiddling with the dial right above the trigger; delicate work, yes, but it can turn the tide of the fight when done correctly-"

"AH! There we go! Fights! You and me, we fought, didn't we?" She pointed almost accusingly at Ahab, who recoiled in surprise. His lips flapped uselessly, no sound emerging from his mouth as if he had the wind knocked out of him by fear. Ahab placed the harness gingerly on the ground on the other side of the bed and stretched himself forwards to put a hand on Ahab's shoulder.

"It's okay, sh~" he whispered, like a mother consoling a child with night terrors, but Ahab shrank back from his teammate's firm touch as well, blushing furiously. Finally, he managed to stutter out a simple "Y-y-yes."

"Yeah, well, I know that already. I think your name was Ahab, right?"

Ahab gave her a nod which may or may not have simply been a spasm of nervous jittering in the neck. Monty knows he was having enough of those.

"Exactly..."

...

Where to go from here?

She hadn't thought this out really well. How could she inquire about his physical abnormalities without offending or scaring off this small, almost mousy kid?

"I was wondering... why did you... break?"

A look of realization dawned on Ahab's face, and his eyes fell to the floor. He knew the question had been coming, but it was still painful to hear people talk about him like a monster, like it was his fault.

"It's not like I want to fight. I mean, I do want to be a Hunter and fight monsters, but..." he trailed off, his thoughts running ahead of his words. 'Its not my fault,' he thought. The words circled around in his head. He winced and clutched his temples.

Yang mentally kicked herself. What was she doing, bringing up bad memories for this poor kid? The more she looked at him, the more he looked like Ruby. He was collapsed on the floor, and looking down at him from the bed made her feel like little more than a bully. She was struck by a vision of her sister in the same position, cowering and quivering beneath her. This was wrong.

She opened her mouth to tell him not to worry, then stopped herself. A chill came over her as his eyes flickered back up to face her every now and then. There it was again: that duality of fear and ferocity that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She may have been the hunter here, but her quarry was a true monster.

Yang gritted her teeth. "Why would you fight anything with a body like that? What's so worth ruining yourself for in being a Hunter?"

Ahab turned his gaze back up to meet hers, holding eye contact as best as he could, the effort causing his cheeks to erupt in pink. He surged forwards violently, drawing himself up to his full height just to look her in the face even though she was just sitting up in bed. His eye twitched awkwardly as he searched for the words to retaliate, but her lilac eyes were stealing his breath away with a strange gravity as if he was falling into Yang Xiao Long's heated glare.

She readied herself. Without her weapons by her side it was difficult to hold her defiant scowl, like trying to scare off a rampaging Grimm unarmed. She puffed her chest, but he only seemed to grow redder, his eyes wilder. Ahab clenched his fists.

"I want to be a Hunter because that's the only thing I ever learned to do. My dad never taught me how to ride a b-bike, or use a computer, or write a poem. I never even knew that those things existed. All I learned about was killing monsters. I'm here, killing monsters, because its the one thing I can do. If I threw away all those years of training, that would just make me a stupid, self centered kid. And," he continued, taking a breath, his heart running a mile a minute, "I can be a better Hunter than anyone, even you. I'll save more people than you ever will, so don't count on being the strongest at Beacon for long."

Ahab finished his speech and whirled around again, pulling down his hood to cover his burning cheeks. Deep breaths, dee~p breaths.

Yang cocked her head to the side. What had she been so apprehensive of? What was she expecting? Of course he had a good reason for trying so hard, just like her. There was no reason for her to harass him like this for being different. She'd never treated anyone else like that before, and she sure wouldn't start now. Seeing him getting all embarrassed over standing up to her like a little kid was... ridiculously refreshing. Her scowl broke, not into an expression of fear but a huge smile.

"Hey now, lighten up kid!" she laughed, noticing his full body convulsion at the sound of her voice. This guy might just be a lot of fun... "You don't really have to worry about that fight anymore, I get where you're coming from."

Ahab turned tentatively, peering around his own hood like a mouse out of his hole. She returned his gaze with a cocky grin.

"Don't be such a stranger. I'm not one to judge people by their looks."

'Except I just did' she thought to herself, but right now she wanted to do her best to break him out of his shell. It didn't feel very good to be feared like that by a kid so similar to her sister.

"Go on," urged the giant from his bed, giving Ahab a little push and forcing him to face her again. The boy wrung his hands together and stammered out, "Th-th-thank you."

"Anytime, kid," she cackled. Ahab raised his little finger in protest.

"Could you not call me kid?" he whispered, but she glossed straight over that.

"Please! An affectionate nickname which suggests a vague teacher/student relationship is an easy way for us to show our newfound closeness and kinship!"

"Sure..." he muttered, slumping down against Quincy's bedframe once more. He wasn't so sure about this new friend of his: she seemed far too likely to throw him straight into uncomfortable situations, and he experienced enough of those from his teammates. Didn't this whole fiasco start with Cammo and Eido's arrogance?

That's right. He might not have become friends with Yang Xiao Long if his teammates weren't the bold, confident teenagers they were. It felt kind of nice to talk to her like this, even if her breasts were still staring him down in tandem with her eyes.

Ahab smiled a little. But only a little.

Maybe he would stick around the infirmary for a little longer.

* * *

**Finally, another chapter is out! And what is the verdict...?**

**"Eh."**

**Good enough! I wasn't too sure how this whole scene would work out, what with the serious opposition between Yang and Ahab. However, then it struck me: "Shonen spirit overcomes all obstacles!" So that's how it turned out.**

**I feel a bit silly right now. Having nothing to write in this little "Author's Note" section is rather unsettling. I'll just go with the classics: Leave a review! Or not! Hope you enjoyed! Thank you for reading!**


	17. Repose

**Another chapter in which not much happens. I promise this won't become a habit, just bear with me for now.  
**

* * *

A rather rotund nurse with with sparkling blue eyes arrived late in the afternoon, about an hour after the residents of the infirmary had finally come to terms with one another. Well, not entirely: Ahab was still somewhat terrified by how personal Yang got from time to time. She was the type prone to affectionate noogies, casual punches on the arm and earnest hugs. Luckily he never had to experience the last one, but her considerable strength proved to be difficult to control. She was probably used to dealing with unbreakable comic relief characters, because her joking nudges were ridiculously over powered.

The nurse looked over her half moon glasses on a chain and beckoned to Yang. "Alright sweetie, you're free to go," she announced in a nasally pitch which suggested she should be the one resting off an illness, not them.

Yang gave her an enthusiastic nod and leapt out of bed. Ahab scuttled out of her way as she surged towards the exit.

"Goodbye," called Quincy pleasantly. She responded with a quick "Later," and shot out the door.

...

"Well, that was abrupt," whispered Ahab, acutely aware of the nurse's nearby presence rummaging around her desk.

"I was not going to mention it, but that girl has no manners," Quincy replied, shaking his head condescendingly. The size difference and shaved head really did make him look more like a middle aged priest than a sixteen year old student, but his chastising attitude was the clincher. It wasn't exactly his fault that he talked _down_ to people, but he did seem to talk _down_ to people in the same way a mother did to her rambunctious children.

The hooded boy sat very conservatively on the now empty bed beside Quincy's and nodded silently. It was the most he would do with another person in the room. Upon doing so the faint scent of lilac greeted his nostrils, making him sneeze in surprise and leap off the mattress. It smelled exactly like her.

Lilac really didn't suit the buxom blonde. Too clean and innocent, not enough of that firey passion. He unconsciously breathed in a little deeper.

Ahab washed his mind of the thought. That was going way too far. He didn't want anyone to think he was creepy. He didn't want anyone to think anything of him, really. He wanted to be the guy whose name rang zero bells among most of the student body.

But being hated, or being feared were far worse than being loved.

He mentally corrected himself. Love was too strong a word. Liked. Enjoyed. Appreciated. There we go, appreciated. So he made friends with Yang Xiao Long. He had no choice. It was either be friends with her or be enemies with her. Besides, as a friend he was far more likely to be forgotten amongst the sea of allies she undoubtedly... appreciated far more than him. Ahab would enter and exit her life like a sudden gust of wind; of course he made an unfortunate racket, but he'd become little more than an inkling of a memory soon enough.

She was a friend in name alone. They would never associate again.

Yang burst through the door again to prove him wrong.

"By the way," she began, but stopped abruptly upon seeing the terrified reaction on his face.

Her puzzled expression made him panic. Had she seen him... appreciating her aroma? The thought of her disgust snapped his guilty conscience to bits. He stammered dumbly, but she interjected once again in an attempt to calm him down.

"Breathe. Go on, breathe, kiddo," she chanted, placing her hands on his shoulders. He shook free of her powerful grip and curled into a ball on the floor again.

"Oh c'mon now, not this again. You need to be a little less jumpy about these things, y'know? Use the technique I taught you."

He began the routine. One long breath in, one long breath out. Feeling only the rising and falling of his chest. After a minute of silence, broken only when the nurse left the room with the slightest of concerned frowns playing across her face, his heartbeat finally slowed to normal levels.

"There we go..." she soothed. "All better now, right?"

"Uh-huh," he mumbled, drawing his scarf tight. Being taken care of by a semi-friend. It was so embarrassing, but he kept his pulse steady lest she begin her therapy once more.

"I am quite surprised," Quincy noted. "I did not expect Ms. Xiao Long to be so adept in this particular field."

"Well, I used to be kind of a flighty kid," Yang smiled, reminiscing. "There was this one incident... I won't bore you with the details, but I dealt with panic attacks for a while afterwards. My dad helped me cope back then, so now I'll help you."

"Th-th-thanks," Ahab said.

"I still can't believe you don't have any way of your own to deal with this problem of yours. How do you function in society?"

"I d-d-don't," he answered promptly. "I haven't n-needed to for a long t-t-time."

She chuckled at what she thought was a joke. Then her face turned solemn.

"Oh yeah, I forgot the reason I came here."

Quincy and Ahab turned to her expectantly.

"I just wanted to check up on how you recovered. You know, with your condition."

So now she was interested in Ahab's well being? Somehow, it made him feel warmer inside.

"I wanted to know... does it hurt?"

...

He turned to face her very directly, the tips of his mouth twitching from the strain. She leaned in close to his fallen form, seated on the infirmary's cold tile.

"N-no."

A pause. His eyes darted around for a bit, searching for an answer, before struggling to lock back onto hers again.

"I mean, think about it. Do you really sup-p-pose all these years of feeling the same things wouldn't desensitize me to that kind of stuff? I don't really feel pain anymore."

She stared at him hard, probing deep into his shallow milky eyes. Satisfied, she rose up to her full height and beamed.

"Thanks. I just wanted to get that off my chest. I'm not sure if I could live with hurting a kid like you too badly."

"Don't m-mention it," he muttered, finally free from the direct eye contact. He waited for her to walk away.

"Well, later. For real this time."

"Goodbye," called Quincy.

"B-b-bye."

She snickered at his stutter. Absolutely adorable. He really did remind her of her sister, or even a younger version of Ruby. Odd, considering he was one year older. The door closed behind her, gentler this time.

Ahab sprawled out on the ground, letting out a sigh of relief. Finally she was gone. Her presence was way too much for an introvert like him to cope with.

"Ahab?"

"Yes..?"

"Were you telling the truth there?"

He drew a sharp breath at being found out, then surrendered. "No, of course not. The human body can't fully desensitize itself to pain without losing something in the process. My regeneration repairs a wound fully, so it restores the same nerves as well."

"So would that be the cause of your small stature?"

Ahab shrugged from his position on the floor. "Aren't you going to call me out on lying? Isn't that a priestly duty of yours?"

"I am not really a priest, per se. Besides, a little white lie from time to time is not such a bad thing."

"Well, I'm proud of feeling pain. Makes me feel human."

"My deformities actually mitigate most pain to certain areas of my body."

"Fascinating."

"Indeed."

...

"Hey Quincy?"

"Yes, Ahab?"

"You call everyone else Mr. or Ms. or even Master, but you only call me Ahab. What's up with that?"

"I have not heard you stutter once throughout our entire conversation. What is up with that?"

"I don't know. I guess... you're not like other people. You shared your secrets with me, so I can be open with you in return. Besides, you're too nice. You practically spoil me like a child. There's no way I would be embarrassed when you're being so considerate."

"Well, I would not exactly use Mr. or Ms. for someone so close, now would I?"

"How close are we talking, here?"

"As close as a sister."

"Yeah, you too- hey wait a second."

"Apologies. I misspoke. As close as a brother."

Ahab sighed deeply and changed the topic. "When are you going to be out of the infirmary?"

Glancing at a wall clock, Quincy replied, "I would estimate another thirty minutes at most. It is almost dinner time. Nobody is restricting you from leaving, however."

Ahab blushed. "Just let me stay next to you a little longer."

* * *

Team RWBY, JNPR and ECQA were all sitting at one table together by the time the two stragglers arrived. Ahab noticed nervously that, including himself and Quincy, there would be a total of 12 students sitting at a table intended to accommodate only 10.

While Quincy opted to kneel on the floor at the foot of the table, still tall enough to measure up to the well postured Weiss, Ahab plopped down at another table with a heartbroken expression on his face.

"How could you do this to me?" he whispered as he passed behind Eido to sit at the table adjacent.

"What are you talking about?" chuckled Eido mischievously before gripping him by his skinny forearm and yanking him forwards. Ahab cried out in a weak whimper and fell into the heir's lap. His cowl slipped off.

"See? I saved a spot for you." Eido grinned. If he could wink he would have.

The suddenly dehooded boy's cheeks practically exploded from the sudden rush of blood.

As the little leader raged quietly at his partner, Cammo continued the conversation. "I didn't notice you were so young, Ruby."

"Oh, really?" she laughed bashfully. "Well, not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty good at fighting."

"Yeah, it was unexpected, especially since you're taller than Weiss. If anyone had to be the younger one..." Cammo stroked her chin pensively and glared at the heiress, who returned the malice without a second thought.

"I'd say the same applies to you, Cammo," Weiss responded.

"At least I don't have to wear heels to measure up to my teammates."

"No, you just make them carry you on their backs. What was that saying... something about the shoulders of giants?"

Electricity practically crackled between their cool eyes. Nora broke through the icy silence.

"But you're really lucky, Cammo! I wish Ren would let me ride him..."

"You're too heavy for me," he deadpanned. The quiet boy was the only student amongst them actually concentrated on finishing his food. Nora pouted in retaliation.

"Wha~t? Are you saying I'm fat, Ren-Ren?"

"You're not fat, Nora. It's just that Ren isn't strong enough to hold up your enthusiasm," Jaune offered. He turned to Weiss with an expectant shrug, but she just shook her head in disdain.

"Never make that joke again," she sighed.

"Like your jokes are any better, Princess," snorted Yang, who was already fully recovered as if nothing had happened. She leaned back in her seat and flicked a pea off of her steak, landing a bulls eye right in between the snowy girl's eyebrows.

"Yang!" she spluttered, but the brawler laughed out loud unabashedly.

"Yang, behave," Pyrrha said in a kind yet commanding tone. Of all the people at the table, Cammo had to be most impressed with the gladiator. Renowned throughout Vale as a professional athlete, she embodied the green girl's ambitions to a T. Dust, she was even on a cereal box. A cereal box, for Monty's sake! It made her wonder if she could have become better known by entering the field of athletics.

'Nah, keep your eyes on the prize,' she thought to herself, quelling her instinctual urge to appeal. It wasn't about the 30 seconds of fame, it was about becoming a legendary warrior. She wouldn't just be praised for the season, she would be praised for generations to come. She could already see the crowds of people cheering around her, the Beacon Academy statue replaced with an enormous representation of herself.

"Yesssssss..."

Eido ignored Cammo's famegasm and leaned over Ahab's skinny frame, propping his chin up the the shorter boy's crown and draping his arms over his shoulders. He turned to Pyrrha and asked "So what's it like being a celebrity, Pyrrha?"

"You would know," she chuckled. "But it's not really all as great as you'd expect."

"Bullshit," Cammo murmured, but concealed it by clearing her throat.

Ahab groaned as his partner's chin dug into his scalp. Dust, his pointy villain features were painful. Maybe that's why bad guy don't usually get dates: all sharp angles. Intimidated by the antics of the others, he glanced over to the silent Blake, reading her book under the table so as to conceal the cover. She was a secretive girl, that much he had noticed. She kept to herself and liked to read while others fooled around. A stray black curl fell in front of her vision, and she brushed it back over her ear with the back of her hand. Ahab traced her movements the whole way through, mesmerized by her grace.

He pinched his own arm. What the hell was he thinking about now? That was the second time today! He was starting to scare himself: what if there was a mind reader among the students at Beacon? With the variety of semblances he had seen so far, it wouldn't exactly be a surprise.

Ashamed of his wandering thoughts, he forced himself to focus his attention on the tray of mashed potatoes and beef in front of him, tugging his scarf subtly out of the way to take tiny, inconspicuous bites. But, try as he might, he couldn't keep his gaze off of Blake for too long at a time. His eyes just kept snapping back to scrutinize the curve of her neck, the gentle fluttering of her eyelashes and the slight twinkling in her irises when she came across a particularly interesting paragraph. Something about her tugged at his memory, but the allure of her mystique enchanted him away from any solid conclusions.

Eido opened his mouth to speak again, and the pain of his chisel-like chin cleared the haze from Ahab's eyes. He finished his meal swiftly and became a human pill, closing off all openings in his hoodie and letting the drone of ambient chatter calm his nerves.

* * *

Pyrrha put a hand over her mouth as she noticed the look of surprise on the heir's face. He directed her attention noiselessly to the sleeping Ahab in his lap, leaning like a scarecrow into his right arm. The gentle rise and fall of his tiny chest was visible through the cloth.

The redhead nudged Jaune, who saw the sleepy leader and delightedly nudged Yang, who took note of the scene and nudged Blake, who didn't even look up and passed on the motion to Ruby, who unfortunately was getting a bit drowsy herself.

"Wha-?" she yawned, but Cammo hushed her and tapped Eido on the shoulder.

"Take him to bed," she whispered, and the heir obliged.

Yang chuckled. No matter how evil he looked, the heir sported a warm smile as he carried Ahab princess-style out of the cafeteria.

* * *

**A bit of trivia: Ahab's character has actually changed significantly from his initial conception. He was actually a lot more confident, dark and brooding, but the became the shy, stuttering mess we have today because I had more fun with him as a socially awkward trap than a lone wolf (I think Eido actually ended up gaining _more_ confidence as a result, rising from intelligent prankster to alpha genius status). It also gives me more chances to have him rely on other people and build relationships in that way. I dunno. I like it.  
**

**So that first part of the chapter is kind of me filling in a moment that I remember really wanting to include but forgetting in the last chapter. The second is to kind of show the interactions between all characters and what not, but also to set up somethingWhichIWillUseLaterButI'mNotTellingWhatItIsAndMay NeverGetToItCosI'mStupidDAMMIT**

**So what do you think of the series? Wait, don't tell me... Actually, do tell me. Preferably in a review. It would be creepy if you showed up in my house to tell me face to face. I'm done with that joke. Anyway, hope you're enjoying the series and have a good day!**


	18. Excursion

**This chapter occurs in the same time frame as episodes 13 and 14 of the canon.**

* * *

"A field trip?"

The students attending Professor Port's Grimm Studies class raised a collective voice of interest. There were back and forth murmurs concerning the location and purpose of the trip, and Eido leaned back in his chair with a wide grin. He loved to watch the human hive system at work, rumors and misconceptions blooming instantaneously before taking flight on the ears of nearby students to be passed around until its eventual demise. In that way, teenagers made Eido think of bees; scary, deadly bees, in the case of Beacon Academy.

And Cammo was the queen of them all. There was no one more skilled at spawning lies and spinning tales than she. By listening closely he could hear the newest ideas originating from her direction before spreading out and encompassing the entire class in one smooth motion, then dying down and being replaced by her next machination. It caused a beautiful ripple effect amongst the students and Eido was floating in the middle of it all, a mere observer of this amazing phenomenon.

Then, as the voices mounted to a climax, Port bristled his mustache and called for silence in his typical booming fashion.

"My word! I've never seen such a commotion of something so simple as a class trip!"

Weiss raised her hand for courtesy's sake and called out, "Excuse me Professor. Why are we going on a field trip right now?"

He puffed his chest and folded his arms behind his back, possibly smiling appreciatively underneath those enormous tufts of silky, robust hair. "Thank you for asking so kindly, Ms. Schnee! Professor Peach needs some red sap from Forever Fall, and she requested that I assist her with this errand."

"So you're making us do it for you," Cammo said, eliciting laughter from her classmates, but Port's furry face turned into a scowl.

"I would never use up your valuable study time for such a trivial matter! This is also an exciting chance for you students to learn a little more about the environment of Forever Fall and the properties of red sap, which simply happens to be in demand at the moment."

"So when's the trip?" Jaune asked.

"Well... this afternoon." Port ran a hand through his hair sheepishly, showing a rare moment of weakness. He always lost track of things when Professor Peach came calling. "But never fear! Everything has been properly arranged, and its an entirely optional 'mission', so to speak."

Yang's hand shot into the air.

"Yes, Ms. Xiao Long?"

"So will there be extra credit or what?"

"Ever opportunistic, I see."

* * *

In the end the entire class volunteered anyway. Escaping their studies for a day wasn't such a bad idea (though certain, more introverted individuals had to be coaxed into the endeavor), and Forever Fall was an exciting place in and of itself. Not only was it crawling with Grimm, like the Emerald Forest, its explosive red foliage was also quite the sight to behold. Trading a day's worth of essay composure for a breath of fresh air and beautiful, monster-filled scenery? Perfect.

The large class had warranted the commandeering of several aircraft, and two teams would be sharing each ship. As Port explained, the scale of the expedition meant that every two ships would touch down in a separate location in the forest, so as to allow the students room to observe nature without attracting Grimm to their numbers.

Ahab readily accepted Eido's hand and allowed the heir to pull him aboard the Bullhead, though he spluttered nonsense and blushed all the same. Cammo had Quincy lift her into the aircraft.

The driver of the vehicle looked a bit anxious about allowing the immense Quincy on board, but ushered him inside anyway. Thankfully, the ship didn't shake _too _much with the addition of the giant.

"You should probably stand in the middle," Cammo said worriedly. She didn't want the Bullhead to be leaning all the way to Forever Fall. The giant obliged, and grabbed hold of one of the overhanging handles. Ahab jumped slightly to grab one of his own and discovered that they extended to meet his... slight stature. Perhaps short Hunters were common enough that non-commercial aircraft such as this were ready for passengers of any height.

"Here they come," muttered Eido with an excited grin on his face. He was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, and when Ahab turned he was shocked at just what caused this reaction.

Team CRDL was coming down to the cliffside docks.

The hooded boy shivered. Their team leader had one of those personalities he just couldn't deal with. Come to think of it, most people had personalities Ahab couldn't deal with. Or just personalities in general, which were frightening enough.

But the armored Hunter approaching them didn't just have a strong attitude. They had seen him at mealtimes using it as a weapon. The colloquial term for a person like him was 'bully'. Ahab had heard about those kinds of people in some of his favorite anime, and he knew they preyed on quiet, cowardly kids like him.

He averted his eyes from team CRDL nervously. Ahab could feel their eyes sizing him up as each member hoisted themselves into the cabin. Breaking into a cold sweat, he gripped Eido's jacket and pulled the taller boy between himself and the other boys. Ahab shielded his body from the cold stare of Sky Lark and the devilish darting gaze of Russel Thresh, the stern examination of Dove Bronzewing and the fiery glare of their ringleader, Cardin Winchester.

Cardin appraised each member of team ECQA in turn. After all, there was a definite reason why he was chosen as the leader of team CRDL, even if most only saw him as a tyrant. His sharp eyes could pick out potential victims, allies, threats and so on in seconds all based on their body language. That was how he had known to seek out Jaune; the boy just looked so weak, like the precariously quivering link in a strong iron chain. It was a technique that Cardin was very proud of, one of his (as he saw it) many redeeming qualities.

Firstly, his vision locked onto the petite green clad girl. He certainly remembered her from team ECQA's mini tournament against team RWBY, but he hadn't yet met her face to face. As they locked eyes, hers turned up defiantly to challenge him. Her verdant eyes narrowed savagely, and he noticed her painted nails curl around the handle in anticipation. That expression was dangerous, warning him that she was not prone to breaking, but experienced in breaking others. He mentally filed her into the 'threat' category.

He skimmed over the giant. That innocent smile demonstrated disgustingly pure intentions, but he had already seen Quincy in combat. The boy wasn't exactly an idiot, nor was he a reasonable, stable human being. Undoubtedly a threat.

Cardin almost missed the shadow hiding behind his partner, but his spirits lifted considerably as he noticed the trembling Ahab. Now this was an easy target, though it would be tough to get around his teammates. That quivering lip, that self depreciative stance, all of it compounded to paint the very picture of a hunted animal. He snickered subtly. 'Victim' for sure.

Finally, he settled on the heir. Eido was an intriguing case for him. His performance the day before had been impressive, and certainly worthy of his villainous looks, but could he be trusted? All of his instincts were on high alert telling Cardin to stay away from that evil grin, but something about the sunglasses clad boy piqued his interest. As if he was a kindred spirit, another bully, Cardin was drawn to him. He was certainly a potential ally, but the question predominant in Cardin's mind was 'Who would be the subordinate?'

He classified the hair as a 'threatening ally' and returned to his own thoughts. Since this morning Cardin had been brewing up a special plot for this trip, and he wouldn't let the moment go to waste...

Bearing the burden of eight students, the Bullhead took off.

* * *

Teams RWBY, JNPR, CRDL and ECQA all touched down at roughly the same time, scattering red leaves everywhere. Whirlwinds of scarlet danced around them as they dismounted one by one. Eido, once again, insisted on helping Ahab down, but the shorter boy pouted and declared that he wasn't so short he needed to depend on his partner for everything.

"Quit treating me like a g-g-girl!" he stammered, his anger actually overcoming his social awkwardness and raising his voice to a noticeable volume. Eido merely smiled. He loved his team leader's reactions way too much to stop.

They strayed away from the landing sight, a wide clearing in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and Goodwitch began to give them the classic safety lecture. Cammo rolled her eyes; why did grown ups always feel the need to explain the dangers behind every endeavor? Not just teaching personnel, but everyone stuck 'choking hazard' stickers on small toys and felt the need to post 'do not climb in the alligator pit' signs in a zoo. Uuuuuh... duh?

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so."

Cammo waggled her eyebrows at Ahab, who sighed in response. Once again, the forest was far less frightening than the people he was working with. At least Grimm didn't look you up and down and judge your worth like window shoppers. Monsters like Beowolves were more interested in tearing you apart limb from limb than making snide remarks. In that respect, he was glad that Cammo was a part of their team; he'd hate to be on the receiving end of her torturous jeering.

Now that he thought about it, the green girl was way nicer to him than to other people. Maybe it was because he was her teammate, or he was shorter than her (which was evidently rare in her life and something to be celebrated) but she could be genuinely kind to him at times. Perhaps behind her cynical remarks and sarcastic tone there was something... more?

He hung his head in shame and contemplated his indecent train of thought as Goodwitch continued to explain the itinerary.

"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here by 4 o'clock. Have fun!"

The teams split, RWBY heading to the north, JNPR heading to the east, ECQA prioritizing the south and CRDL meandering to the north.

Eido raised his silver eyebrows. A certain knight appeared to be heavily burdened with more than his fair share of equipment. Eido activated his semblance and watched Jaune's white aura stray away from his teammates to follow team CRDL, stroking his chin in thought or possibly awe.

"Interesting..." he murmured. Cardin may just have been a little bit stronger of an opponent than he had anticipated. Of course, control over an unwilling individual was no sign of absolute skill. Anyone could achieve it with the right tools and information. Blackmail was far too easy a means of domination, as humans were guaranteed to protect their secrets. All people had things they weren't proud of, it was that simple. He knew from experience that finding a weak point in one child did not grant the iron rule of a dictator; one needed more substance, structure and precise planning.

Still, Eido allowed his mind to wander. Could Cardin be a useful pawn after all?

* * *

Quincy was alone, deep in the forest. Cammo and Eido, both focused on making fun of Ahab, had strayed off the path somewhere else, leaving the giant behind.

'I assume I would not have entertained them for much longer,' he thought.

He roughly thumped a tap into a tree and watched as a highly viscuous red substance oozed out. So this was red sap.

Not much to say about it really.

It did have a rather sweet aroma, and by dipping a single giant finger into the flow and lifting it to his lips he found it to be edible. Perhaps Professor Peach was searching for another ingredient to add to the academy's cafeteria on pancake day. No, of course not, it had to be something more important than that.

He set a jar under the tap and allowed the stream of sticky sap to drain into it. As he waited, the scent thickened in the air, lulling him to sleep. It wouldn't hurt to take a quick nap under the bursting crimson trees, would it?

Of course it would. He snapped himself to attention. Being taken in by the sin of sloth was unbecoming of him. In a forest full of monsters on top of that? Absurd. Potentially deadly. A foolish decision.

Quincy topped off his jar and sealed it tightly. He pivoted on his left foot and shielded his eyes from the sun poking through the tree cover. Now where was the way back..?

A growl sounded to his right, drawing his attention. An Ursa so early in the day? Was this place really 'swarming' with Grimm as he had been told? He hadn't seen any on the entire way here though...

He checked his scroll. Still only 3:30. He had time for a quick fight scene or two. Whipping out two hammers, he dashed around the tree to clock the incoming Ursa upside the head. It staggered, and he whipped around to trap it's skull between the head of his weapon and an especially thick tree trunk. The impact shattered the creature's bone mask and dented the tree, causing it to bleed sap on the disintegrating body of the Grimm.

Too short. Too short for his liking. Now that his nerves were all wound up, he needed release. Something to hit, something to break, anything really. He just wanted a target for his energy.

Quincy asked and Monty apparently delivered. Lumbering towards him was another Ursa, sniffing the air and allowing its nose to guide the beast directly to him.

The giant stared at the leaking tree trunk. Was it after the sap? Now he understood why they had given the students such precise tools, drills and taps: randomly knocking holes in the trees wouldn't simply upset the wildlife, it would _attract_ the wildlife to their location. A dangerous game for first year Hunters and Huntresses to deal with in a forest full of monsters.

Quincy swiftly pummeled the Grimm, driving its head into the ground. This one was slightly bigger, and didn't shatter so easily as the last one. It lunged forwards and pushed against his weapon, forcing Quincy to block with the shaft of the hammer. Drawing another mallet from his harness, he thudded the creature square on the head once, twice and thrice. His third blow detonated, leaving its armor in pieces. A final backhanded swing sent the Ursa's head flying into the woods, shedding rose petals in a perfect parabola.

He barely had time to take a breath when he heard the next Grimm challenging him. Two this time, one from each side, both positively colossal Beowolves.

Quincy grinned and stuck several taps in nearby trees, allowing the sap to flow from the trunk onto the forest floor. The air began to haze with the omnipresent smell of delicious red sap. The giant heard howls in the distance drawing closer.

This was just the kind of stress relief he needed.

* * *

4 o'clock rolled around, and Quincy was on time as always. Eido and co. strolled into the meeting place only to gape at the giant's haggard condition.

"Dust, Quince, what happened to you?" Cammo inquired, inspecting his injuries.

"Get in a tussle with a Nevermore or something?"

Ahab simply drew close to his side for a closer look at the giant's wounds. No need for immediate medical attention, but these were still nasty marks for a guy with a working defensive aura. He'd shrugged off bullets before, so what had inflicted this condition on him?

Contrary to his beaten up state, Quincy was smiling broadly.

"What's got you so happy?" Cammo asked, peering at the giant suspiciously. Quincy only shrugged.

"I just had a good time today."

* * *

**Cardin's appearance serves as a taste of just what other people think when they look at team ECQA. Not much else to say.  
**

**Oh, and the safety rant thing. I know why they do it, no need to explain it to me. It's just in her character to be annoyed by these things.**

**Have you noticed the theme of team ECQA? No? Well carry on then.**

**Yeah, leave a review and all that. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a nice day. You're a good person, you know that? You deserve a genuinely nice day every once in a while. Be strong. Someone out there loves you.  
**


	19. Blackmail

**As swift as the coursing river, I update! Short chapter for today, but hope you enjoy it all the same.  
**

* * *

"Say..."

Cardin looked up over his shoulder to greet an evilly grinning Eido Pitch, standing a bit too close.

"Woah!" he cried, gripping the table to keep himself from falling out of his seat.

"Dust, man, calm down," chuckled the heir. "I'm just here to talk."

"Well, I figured that much," Cardin spat. Dammit, his teammates were watching. He couldn't falter just now. Not like earlier...

"I just thought I'd check in on how you were doing with... what did you call him... Jauney boy?"

The Winchester cringed.

"Hoho~ I see..."

"Why would you want to know, huh? We've never talked before now."

"We have met though, two days ago to be precise. And last time Jaune Arc was hanging around your clique like a moth. Or a bad smell. Or was it... a dog?"

Cardin shivered up and down.

"That's right," Eido continued, easing his glasses down his nose to reveal his eyes to the bully. "He had the distinct air of a beaten, downtrodden puppy. Now I'm wondering, why would he be dicking around your team when his own needed him to lead them?"

"What, are you here to stand up for him? I don't give a damn about that anymore, it's all in the past." Cardin skirted around the more obvious answer: revenge. He was breaking into a cold sweat as they spoke, attempting desperately and unsuccessfully to cover up his fear with arrogance. He'd seen the heir's brutality first hand earlier, and he did not want to be on the receiving end of his punches (or his laugh for that matter - dust, was that creepy).

Eido pressed onwards, pursuing Cardin's uneasiness. He could feel it already, activating his semblance only to be met with the nervous, irregular rhythm of the orange aura before him. "I'm not so much here to stand up for him as I am to... let's say get in on the fun."

"Huh?"

"Tell me how you did it." Eido waited patiently. This was a deciding factor in Cardin's judgement. If it really was a fluke... well, he'd just have to see for himself.

Cardin stalled nervously. He could hear chairs be pulled forwards as his teammates closed in on him. They also wanted to know the secret behind the obedience of Jaune.

"Uuuh... well..." Seeing as he was backed into a corner, he had few options left to him before he would have to cave in. Of course, Eido could tell him off to the school any time he deemed appropriate. Furthermore, could he even pull off lying to that devious face, crafted in the image of the devil himself? Something told him that the heir would be able to tell if he was lying, and the thought chilled him to the bone.

He was caught in the black spider's web. There was no way out.

Cardin fessed up resentfully. "I... well I didn't really mean to overhear it. I just happened to be on the roof one night when Jauney was talking to his partner and..."

"Gotcha. Say no more," Eido commanded, a playful grin stretched across his lips. "Secrets are the most powerful weapons in the world. They should be guarded with your life."

Russel let out an involuntary "awww" before clapping a hand over his mouth as Eido turned in his direction. The heir was delighted to notice that the boy was trying to stifle his breathing, as if he were some sound-based hunter who would pass over him if he kept absolutely silent.

The others kept out of Cardin and Eido's dialogue, unwilling to cut in despite the larger boy's repeated signals for help. Stepping between the two would be like taking a step in front of Eido's laser fire, so they left them to talk it out amongst themselves.

"I won't lie; I am rather disappointed in you. I was hoping you'd accomplished all that conquest on your own, but alas..." he swooned falsely, drawing the computer from his satchel, "it wasn't to be. You just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

Cardin hung his head like a schoolchild being scolded, then shook such thoughts from his head. Why the hell was he getting reprimanded by a boy most likely younger than him, smaller than him and weaker than him? He was the one who did the grilling, not the other way around.

Bristling with impatience he opened his mouth to speak, but Eido silenced him with the index finger of his free hand, laying the laptop on the table in front of Cardin and inputting a sixteen digit password in the blink of an eye. Cardin watched in awe as Eido popped a headset on and began playing the keyboard like a prestissimo piano piece.

"I can't deny that you are ambitious. Your schemes are well thought out, but they lack a little finesse, a little subtlety. For example, your revenge plot for Pyrrha."

Cardin froze. How did he know about that? To his horror, Eido turned up the volume on his computer in order to let the bully hear a familiar voice issuing instructions.

"Hey! It's your buddy Cardin! I know you're probably busy with that Dust project I gave you, buuuut I'm gonna need you to go out and get me a bag of Rapier Wasps. And make sure they've got some really big stingers! It's important, so don't screw this up!"

"Hey, hold on!" Cardin blurted out. "Turn that off! Where did you get that?"

"This? Well, its pretty simple really. You probably didn't know this, but Beacon's security isn't limited to the teachers and the environment: the network is rigged to intercept and record any calls going through. Just using your scrolls on campus is practically asking to be bugged. Naturally, they don't bother with the calls most of the time, but once a real incident occurs they have to go back through the logs and hire temps to screen each conversation. But the data is still there, which is perfect for any pioneering hackers who want to... delve a little deeper into the lives of their peers."

The bully, who until know had been holding steady eye contact, was seized by fear. His knees trembled, but he kept as straight a face as possible. He couldn't show any weakness. Any fault could be exploited, any slip up could be deadly.

There was no running from the heir.

"Anyway, back to your petty vengeance. Rapier Wasps? You thought that would be the moment which brought the great Pyrrha Nikos to her knees?" He cackled derisively. "No way is a handful of pint-sized Grimm going to cause her any embarrassment at all; sure, they'll be annoying, but she's trained to fight monsters on a daily basis, even the ones with _really big stingers_."

Cardin grimaced. Eido was flaying him in front of his teammates, beating him like an old carpet while he could do nothing to retaliate. Just sitting and taking it went against every fiber in his being, but he endured it. This was far too big a fish for him to fry with his usual tactics. He could only hope the cruel tyrant would grow tired of jeering and move on to whatever victim he had lined up next.

"But... it's still worth something."

'Huh?' Cardin thought. What the hell did he mean by 'worth'? The bully himself was the one who would determine the worth of others. Why was this kid treating him like an object on display, or a not-so-impressive vehicle only considered thanks to a vicious price slashing? Who the hell did he think he was?

"You've certainly got quite the drive for settling the score. And there's no doubt you're a scary kid, or at least look scary."

'Excuse me? What do you mean, 'at least'?'

"Let's see if we can put that 'right place, right time' technique to work. No matter how convenient it is, no one negotiates serious business over the phone, especially in such a wired up place like Beacon. However, you know what they _do _discuss over the phone?" Eido paused expectantly, and Cardin shook his head dumbly. Simple answers only. Show no reaction. No weakness. Dust, what would his old man think of him if he saw him now, obediently sitting and listening to a scrawny rich kid?

"They arrange these events: confessions, parties, booty calls, therapy sessions, whatever. It doesn't matter how important the subject matter is, because you can set up a face-to-face encounter online with a few button presses without diminishing the effect of the news itself."

Cardin nodded. Where was he going with this blabber?

"So while I'm connected to the server, I just simply don't have the time to be everywhere, listening in to this juicy gossip that's going to waste, unrecorded. You catch my drift, right?" Upon receiving a blank response, he continued, "I can tell you where to listen, and suddenly you have a treasure trove of blackmail. You like that kind of stuff, right? You can handle that?"

A look of understanding dawned on the bully's features, but he remained silent. Sure, there were advantages to this partnership, but could one really call it that? It wasn't like Eido himself would get his hands dirty; only Cardin would be forced to run menial errands for a higher power. As much as he would love to have a whole slew of subservient students doing his homework, buying him soda and carrying his books, he would love to escape the clutches of the heir much more. Associating himself further with Eido's dirty business would only be digging himself further into a hole.

But it was too late for that. He already had blackmail hanging over Cardin's head like a guillotine blade. This wasn't so much a business proposal as it was a disguised threat: '_Be my minion or you'll face the consequences._' Something like that.

He thought back to Jaune and his betrayal. He had been strong enough to stand up to Cardin, and he was Jaune. What made Eido think that he could take control of so many students with thin blackmail?

Could this plan actually work?

"Can you... let me think about it for a bit?"

"Of course, though I don't see the point. My offer won't change. Be careful who you share this with, though. The walls have ears here, and I'm plugged in to _all_ of them."

That was not a very well disguised threat. Maybe Eido was being a little too forward here, or a little too confident in his power, but he obviously had the right. 'That's right,' he thought. 'The strong have the right to use their advantages as they please.' Looking at Eido, offering omniscience for a few simple tasks, Cardin's jaw tightened. He wanted to be stronger. He wanted to wield the same power the heir did.

But was it worth it?

Remembering Jaune's defiant expression, Cardin cursed under his breath and relented. "Sure, whatever. Just send me a message or something."

Eido grinned wide. "I'll let you know when you have work to do."

"Don't put it like that. I hate doing work for other people."

"If you insist."

The heir packed up his equipment and disappeared, leaving Cardin to his disappointingly cold lunch. A fire burned in the boy's gut, and he chowed through what remained on his tray before flinging it aside.

A chance to correct Jaune Arc's challenging stance?

He wouldn't miss it for anything in the world.

He was the stronger one.

He wouldn't show weakness.

* * *

**Oh joy, Cardin's getting involved!**

**Yeah, this event is what Cardin's prior appearances were leading up to. It wasn't just lazy placeholder writing after all! Yippeeee~**

**I still love the idea of a Cardin redemption story (as you've probably seen from my other stories), but this is a bit darker than The Dance, so I'll be having some fun with Cardin as a villain! Not just some generic school bully, but an actual full fleshed antagonist! :D Fun!**

**I think I may be overusing exclamation points in this author's note, but there's just so much to be excited about! Right? Right?!**

**Leave a review! Or not, but I hope you still had fun with the series! Have a nice day, and may the power of friendship be with you!  
**


	20. Games

**There is no plot in the following chapter.**

* * *

"Shit."

"Language," Quincy warned his partner from his seat in the one chair in team ECQA's room.

"Yeah, yeah, just gimme a sec." Cammo shrugged off his preaching with a casual wave of the hand, more focused on the hand she had just been dealt. Playing poker with Eido was ridiculously frustrating because he had the most impeccable poker face.

"Swear to Monty, if you're reading me with your semblance..."

"Check my aura levels. I haven't done a single thing."

She didn't bother flipping open her Scroll to investigate. Eido's card skills were godly even without any trickery involved.

"Fuck it, I fold." She tossed a pair of Kings and assorted 2's and 5's at the heir. "This is such grimmshit. It's no fun if I can never win!"

Eido just smiled and reshuffled the cards back into the deck adorned with Beacon's crossed axes. "That's a shame. Giving up after five rounds? How weak."

"You're just too good at the game," Ahab called from his mattress, hunched over his textbook. "You know, you'd get more enjoyment out of it if you let her win every once in a while."

The heir snorted derisively. Cammo translated. "This pompous brat just can't stand to lose, so he resorts to cheating!"

"Never cheated, not even once. We even punched out the cards in braille so I could read them without my semblance. You're just getting defensive over nothing."

"Fuck, I need to stop playing with geniuses..." She looked over at her leader and called him over. "Hey Ahab, wanna play a game called poker?"

"I'm hurt that you are so sure of victory."

"It's not tha~t. I just want to have a fair chance of winning!"

"It's a game of luck. You always have a fair chance."

"To the contrary, my ignorant friend," Eido cackled, flipping a 1 Lien coin in the air for effect. "Gambling is a fine art, facilitated by superior intellect and intuition."

"And cheating," Cammo mumbled sorely.

"You dare accuse me of trickery? Have you never heard the phrase 'Blind Justice'? I am blind, therefore I am the law."

"Remember, gambling is a sin," Quincy advised, but his words fell on deaf ears. They really never listened to him whenever he tried to guide them on the righteous path. Lying, oversleeping, indulgence, gambling, searching for impure websites (that had been an awkward day for them); his teammates did it all with varying degrees of pride. They delighted in debauchery, excelled in evil deeds and idolized impurity.

But they were happy. And that was all that mattered, right?

Hell no.

A sharp popping noise could be heard, drawing everyone's gaze. Quincy looked down at the mess of sand and fabric in his hand. His stress ball had popped.

"Oops," he muttered.

Realizing just what had happened, the other three shivered. They had seen him sewing the item up earlier that morning, but had thought nothing of it. Come to think of it, Quincy's sewing skills were rather well honed. But that wasn't really the issue. If he was already squeezing hard enough to crush that mass of elastic and silt...

"Say, how about we retire the cards for now?"

"Uh-huh, yeah, let's do that."

Quincy rustled around their bathroom and retrieved the dust pan. He swept the sand with renewed conviction; he _would_ reform his teammates.

"What do you say too... chess?"

"Try again," she groaned.

"Checkers?"

"No thanks."

"Go?"

"As if."

"Grottos and Grimm?"

"That'll take way too long. Good idea though, we should make a note of that for later."

"Pick a game purely based on luck," Ahab suggested. "At least it'll be even."

"Alright, flip a coin."

"Really? That's what you're going with?" The hooded boy was less than impressed with her imagination, but he relented.

Eido produced the same 1 Lien coin he had been playing with earlier. "Call it."

"Fuck that noise. I'm flipping it, you hear me? Hand it over."

He obliged.

"Alright, call it," she said.

"Heads."

Cammo flicked it up into the air with her thumb, watching intently as it turned once, twice, three times. She snatched it out of the air and slapped it against the back of her hand. The room grew deadly silent in anticipation as she revealed the coin.

...

"YOU MOTHER FUCKER!"

"THAT WAS A FIFTY FIFTY CHANCE, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"

Ahab collapsed into a fit of giggling.

"OI! YOU! SHUT YOUR CLOAKED PIE HOLE BEFORE I CALL YANG OVER!"

He turned pale at her threat. "You wouldn't."

"I would. She told me that team RWBY could hang out _any time_," she threatened, her voice cool as ice.

His cheeks burst into color and he drew his knees close. "Please don't..." he whispered from his fetal position.

"Look," Eido began. "Flip the damn thing again. You'll see, I'm not doing anything."

"Call it," she snapped.

"Heads."

A quiet 'ting' as she flicked the coin once more. This time, she let the 1 Lien hit the floor and bounce, rolling for a few centimeters towards Eido before falling on it's side.

Heads again.

"I KNEW IT!"

"CALM DOWN! WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH YOU TODAY?"

"Dammit, I want to win ONE GAME against you. JUST ONE GAME!"

"THERE'S A ONE IN FOUR CHANCE OF ME WINNING BOTH TIMES!"

"AND THAT'S STILL TOO MUCH!"

He paused.

"Wanna go for round three?"

Cammo whipped out Nemean Grin and tightened its jaws around the coin, bending it at a 90 degree angle.

"Fuck no."

Eido frowned, drawing his silver eyebrows together in irritation. That was a perfectly good 1 Lien coin.

"How about we play backgammon?"

"I'm not in the mood for games anymore."

"You could always study," offered Ahab, hoisting his textbook over his head as an example. He was tired of watching the two geniuses slacking off while he and Quincy had to spend time on their homework like normal students.

"Not interested. Man, I really need a computer." Cammo hopped to Quincy's mattress, then vaulted from there into her own bed.

"I can lend you mine, but..."

"I don't need your souped-up supah hackah laptop. I'm just looking to play a game to kill some time."

"It's pronounced 'hacker'."

"I care not."

Ahab pulled the lip of his hood forward and resumed his reading. He had roughly an hour left before dinner to complete the chapter on Menagerie, and he hadn't even started. Considering his noisy surroundings, he wondered if Blake felt the same way about her teammates...

He was drifting off again. Pinching his cheek to wake himself up, he refocused his efforts on powering through the next twenty pages diligently.

* * *

Cardin returned to the dormitory after sitting through his final lecture for the day. Easing back onto his bed, he put his arms behind his head and sighed deeply.

The crinkling of paper sounded next to his ear, shocking him into sitting bolt upright.

He looked back and forth for a possible source to the noise, then lifted his pillow. A small square of lined paper, folded twice down the middle, sat innocently on his mattress, as if it was one of those mints one might find on a bed in a hotel.

There was little doubt of who sent the message. Nevertheless, Cardin feigned ignorance to himself and tried to think of anyone else who might have sent him the letter. 'Maybe Dove came back early and decided to leave me a note?' Yeah, right. As if that squinty son of a bitch cared enough to write out an entire sentence for such a minor thing.

He had kind of been expecting this, but it still sent shivers down his spine to think that the heir's influence extended this far. Even his room wasn't safe, even with a keycard lock. What was the Beacon policy on deadbolts?

Dreading what would come next, Cardin teased open the note. Written in neat, flowing script were the following words:

_Be on the roof at 7 o'clock tonight. Remember to hide yourself. You may have to wait a little bit._

So it was already beginning, huh?

* * *

**Other names I went through included 'Dunes and Deathstalkers' and 'Badlands and Beowolves'. In the end, 'grotto' was the closest thing to 'dungeon' I could manage.**

**OH HELL YES! I got another banter (aka filler) chapter! These are always fun to write, even if they accomplish next to nothing. What can I say, they're still more or less high-school students. Their free time just isn't as exciting as team RWBY's.  
**

**It makes me wonder: do I even need to add this "Leave a review pls" bit at this point? Do I even need to tell you how much I appreciate it? Heck, do I even need to include an Author's Note? Oh well, too late.**

**Hope you have a nice day! Thanks for reading!**


	21. Options

**This chapter takes place more or less around the 15th and 16th episodes, but does not involve the canon events.  
**

* * *

_Thunk, thunk, thunk_.

"Good work," Goodwitch spoke monotonously, making it incredibly obvious that she was far from impressed with their 'good work'. Perhaps the _thunks_ were too few and far between. It couldn't be helped; marksmanship was not their specialty. The students she had assembled for this supplementary class were all Hunters and Huntresses with no long range form for their weapon, something that she admittedly considered a fatal disadvantage.

Cammo grumbled angrily, sweating hard after close to an hour of constant running and shooting. "Its not like everyone is as frail a fighter as you when it comes to QCQ."

"What was that, Ms. Deuce?" Goodwitch said with a low growl. Beneath her words was an arctic breeze, freezing the saucy student in place. Perhaps it wasn't so much her tone as it was the way all of the dozens of levitating targets swiveled to face her along with the professor. It reminded her somewhat of Quincy's snake nest-like harness, always looking around for a victim, straying from the gentle mood of their wielder.

She took aim and fired rapidly, striking two marks a good three centimeters off center.

"Twenty-four shots, two hits..." their instructor sighed. "This is going to take far more work."

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU EXPECT FROM US?" Cammo burst furiously. Ahab had only just realized, but the girl seemed to have a penchant for shouting, screaming and generally being loud. It was powerful enough to make him grimace; her angry voice still rang clear and was easy on the ears, but it attracted to much attention to their team. Feeling those gazes on him... he shivered at the thought.

"I expect you to have more than just two options in combat. A Huntress should be able to adapt to any situation and be prepared to fight any enemy. That's why I have equipped you with standard issue firearms for training. Learn to shoot with these and broaden your horizons."

Ahab glanced around. Besides himself and Cammo, there were only a few other students without ranged weaponry: Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester, as well as four or five others Ahab couldn't put a name to. In addition to the many first years, an immense second year with a black crew cut was standing near the back of the class.

"Let's take a quick break now," Goodwitch declared. The students collapsed where they stood (with the exception of the second year), struggling to sit up at the very least. Ahab called to Cammo weakly.

"I'm not too sure about this class..."

"Yeah, you're telling me," she snorted. She let the Tommy gun she had been firing fall to the dirt, rolling her shoulder and wincing in pain. "Honestly, what's she expecting me to hit with such a low accuracy weapon?"

"No, not that. It's just... they're kinda singling out the exclusively melee kids..."

"...like we're the special needs kids." She spat on the ground and cursed. "There's no need to carry one more weapon. Nemean Grin is all I really need to take down anything that tries to pick a fight with me."

Ahab shrugged in agreement. He didn't need to keep his distance from anyone - thanks to his hyper regeneration he could simply charge through projectiles and engage from close quarters. Sure it hurt, but...

He glanced down at the simple machine pistol. As much as he appreciated the generosity of Beacon Academy, it just didn't feel right in hands. Feeling the smooth back strap in his palm, running his fingers around the grooves subtly, he just couldn't use it the way Blake used Gambol Shroud. That graceful, pinpoint accuracy that he had witnessed didn't come naturally to him as it did to the others, who had been fighting with firearms for much of their lives. Rather, it didn't give him the same experience he had trained himself for with Titanium Vengeance.

How could he say it... didn't most people refer to weapon mastery as using one's weapon like another arm? The rattling metal in his weak grip felt more like an enemy than the target. He didn't get the same connection with the pistol that he did with his own weapons. His eye twitched in fear. Had he messed up by training with his strange, screwed up weapon? Had he ruined himself for guns by learning with his body?

As Ahab collapsed into his insecurities, Cammo fumed.

"Goodwitch. Heh. More like Good_bitch_."

She chuckled. That wasn't a half bad pun. She couldn't share this with Ahab though, he was too straight laced. Maybe Eido. He had a certain appreciation for wordplay and vulgarity, as well as a certain depreciation for Goodwitch. 'She's too strict,' he had explained. 'She always catches my tampering.'

Pause. Maybe she shouldn't involve herself with Eido's projects too much. She could be tried for aiding and abetting.

Staring at the useless firearm, abandoned on the amphitheater floor, she bristled with rage once again. Why did she need to compromise herself to fit some ideal Huntress mold? Not even Goodwitch could fully understand the effectiveness behind each student's individual style. Why did she think she could somehow improve Cammo's technique with her textbook methods?

She could accomplish anything with her strength. Her talent was her lifeblood. She didn't need a 'ranged combat option', and she certainly didn't need an instructor. What she needed was a challenge. A test of her power.

She wanted a mission more than anything else. That's why she came to Beacon. She was already strong enough. She just needed a campaign platform.

* * *

Meanwhile, Goodwitch spoke to Yatsuhashi in a hushed tone as he lay an assault rifle down to the earth. It seemed as if it weighed less than a sheet of paper in his hands, but the heavy clang as it struck the ground revealed its hefty weight.

"Mr. Daichi, I realize that this isn't your forte, but you need to at least try to advance in this course."

He nodded in understanding, but she frowned. He was far too casual about this, considering that all the second years had already grasped marksmanship to a T. He still ignored long distance combat altogether. It was upsetting for her, because in all other respects he was a model student. Simply refusing to use a ranged weapon was a ridiculous reason to be a problem child, but she had a quota to maintain.

"You need to pick up a ranged weapon soon. All of your peers have learned to diversify their tactics, but I'm worried that your specialties are a touch too... straight forward."

He nodded again. Goodwitch groaned in frustration. Obedient as he was, she would get nowhere with his stubbornness.

"Fine. We'll just have to continue sending you to supplementary classes. It's a shame, but until you reach the level of your teammates I can't let you advance."

A final nod. She stormed off, visibly disappointed. Cammo snickered at her sullen face, a welcome sight for sore eyes.

"Don't worry about Goodbitch," she advised the huge second year, recycling her last joke. "You look pretty damn strong. I'm sure you can handle yourself in a fight."

He nodded. Dust, was he mute or something?

"Hey Ahab, meet... Daichi?" she asked, prompting explanation, but he replied once again with a simple head gesture. At least she knew his neck wasn't just on a hinge, waving in the wind; he shook his head no this time. She motioned for him to elaborate, but he remained silent, staring down at her seat on the amphitheater floor. Giving up, she unlocked her Scroll and quickly made her way to the student roster.

"Yatsuhashi?"

He nodded.

"Hey Ahab, meet Mouthless." She grabbed Ahab's shoulder and drew him closer to introduce her stammering leader to Yatsuhashi. The second year frowned at the nickname, but let it slide.

"He-hehehehehheeeeey," he stuttered, transforming his frightened greeting into an awkward laugh. Realizing that this option was not much better, his face fell and he curled up into a ball.

"Really, this again?" Cammo sighed at the boy's trembling. "Whatever, this is Ahab, my pitiful team leader. I'm Cammo."

He nodded his usual soundless greeting. Seriously, what was wrong with his voice? Cammo chuckled at the thought of the enormous upperclassman opening his mouth and revealing a squeaky, prepubescent speech pattern entirely unfit for a man of his proportions.

In spite of her curiosity, she didn't pry. Something told her he wouldn't answer.

"You're a friend of Coco's? On team CFVY?"

He nodded.

"Wait, who? H-h-how do you know that?"

Cammo whirled around at the annoyingly breathy Ahab. On second thought, it would be more amazing if that huge second year could manage to mimic Ahab's childish whispering. Dust, sometimes he really got on her nerves. Then again, looking closer at that adorably fragile kid just made her heart melt a little.

What the hell? Maternal instinct? From herself of all people?

Disgusting.

"Well, obviously I know who the big players at Beacon are. Of the many teams currently training here, CFVY is one of the strongest, flashiest and overall best known of them all."

"Eh?" He didn't know. Maybe that thin hood blocked out a lot more information than she thought. Of course, being as socially isolated as he was, he probably couldn't tap in to the mainstream data flow like she did. More like he was hiding from it, actually.

"I actually met up with Coco earlier this year. Sometime after our battles with team RWBY, I think." Yatsuhashi raised an eyebrow at this and cocked his head ever so slightly. Cammo mentally pumped her fist. FUCK YEAH, A REACTION!

"She wasn't too interested in underclassmen," she continued. "I did manage to convince her to answer a few questions, though." Thank god she had, too. Coco wasn't the most accommodating person at Beacon, and she had seemed earnestly irritated by Cammo's careful probing. It apparently didn't take much to rile her up. Of all kinds of people, Cammo hated standoffish types the most. Probably because they reminded her of herself.

Yatsuhashi nodded understandingly. Interesting how one simple gesture could be used for so many occasions. He knew his own leader's personality just as well as Cammo knew hers, so he sympathized with the (he thought) ridiculously short girl.

"Yeah, I know right? Is she always like tha-"

"Okay, back to work!"

'Dammit Goodwitch, I was doing my _thing!_ Don't interrupt me when I'm doing my _thing!_' Cammo cursed internally. Externally, she rolled her eyes and gave the second year a polite smile.

"See you around, I guess."

He nodded.

"Yeah, you too." She dragged her feet all the way to the discarded Tommy gun and picked it up. Ahab grabbed the machine pistol and took aim.

"Start!" Goodwitch exclaimed, and the targets buzzed about her once again.

* * *

**Because Yatsuhashi has only made one or two appearances so far, I just went with the typical silent warrior archetype. If anyone has a problem with it, you're free to complain. That's just how I see him.**

**Come to think of it, team CFVY is pretty close to team ECQA in terms of character design. Yatsuhashi = Quincy (op giants), Fox = Eido (slender cool guys), Coco = Cammo (petite queen-bee types) and Velvet... well, she and Ahab are very similar under the surface. I swear this wasn't intentional, I guess its just how the character types spread out for most groups of four.  
**

**What's this chapter for? Well, it was just kind of bothering me how obviously bullshit the weapons system was like in the RWBY universe. BYOW? Really? Where's the tactical advantage of training only some students with custom overpowered weapons and others with "family heirlooms"? I know that most other authors on this site have confronted that issue (all of the alternate Jaune stories that have him specializing in additional weapons besides his sword and shield, or give Crocea Mors new abilities), so I just thought this was another way Beacon might maintain a _reasonable_ minimum of at least one melee and one ranged option for every student.**

**Besides that, introducing team CFVY to team ECQA's scope of understanding. Or at least Ahab's scope. Also, Yatsuhashi is cool.**

**Thanks for reading as usual. If you have any suggestions, complaints, etc on the story, be sure to leave a review. Have a good day and I hope you feel like a good person. Y'know, just the usual passing praise.**

**My AN's are too long.**


	22. Variety

"Say... are we in a rut?"

Upon hearing those words, the entire team turned to Cammo. Eido passed her a useless glance over his hand of cards.

"Are you saying this to get out of losing this third round?"

"No, its not that. It's just... this is the fourth day in a row we do this."

"I do not understand what you are implying," Quincy said from team ECQA's one chair, intently focused on his sewing project.

"I mean, we're in the exact same spots in the room. Ahab is studying like a good little boy, you're fixing your stress ball for the zillionth time in a week and we're still playing poker."

"Yeah, I thought you were never going to play poker with Eido again," Ahab mused.

"Exactly. But somehow we keep gravitating towards the same roles."

"It can't be helped," Eido sighed. "Human beings are defined by tradition. As much as they may hate it, habits bring comfort to the mind and invoke a sense of safety."

"Well, aren't you the expert on the subject."

"Among the many things I've studied during my earlier years, human psychology was a major focus. It's really just a matter of personal preference."

"Fucking geniuses," Cammo muttered. "I feel you though, I really do. It's like learning to cook one thing for breakfast and never straying from that one recipe. Or learning how to play an instrument; musicians memorize songs by repeating the same motions over and over until it comes naturally."

"And when we make the same mistakes over and over again, it still feels strangely right."

The room went silent and everyone looked to the one who had spoken, still seated on his frameless mattress cradling his textbook. Noticing the lack of agreement, he peered up at his teammates through his scraggly bangs. He blushed furiously once he realized the whole room was focused on him.

"Wh-wh-what?"

"I... didn't realize you were that kind of person," Eido said quietly.

"All of a sudden, your outfit makes sense," Cammo mentioned.

"Wait, what? Is it b-because I don't wear the uniform?" He clutched at his hoodie in sudden embarrassment. Had he been standing out that much?

"Leaving aside Ahab's serious counseling needs, this is definitely an issue."

"Why?" asked the heir. "It's only natural for people to settle into routines. It makes them much more predictable."

"Your villainous nature never ceases to amaze me. But we still need to break the habit, even if only to keep myself from losing another game of poker." Eido could hear it: Cammo had already stealthily begun shuffling and stowing away the deck.

"I think you're trying too hard for something that just won't work," Eido chuckled. "People can't stop themselves from doing these things. It's instinct. Like a bully, who can't stop trying to climb over people," he mentioned casually.

"Never!" declared the green girl in a very Port-like manner. "I am not some animal controlled by my primal urges! We shall do something exciting today!"

"If you were to win at poker, wouldn't that be exciting?"

"Yeah, no." She stood up and gave the giant a little kick in the knee to get his attention. He turned up from his sewing and got ready for her to climb on him. This had become somewhat expected of the hunchback and he didn't seem to mind it (as she was incredibly light), so Ahab left it alone, but it still bothered the hooded boy. Something about their closeness irked him, like a fist had been shoved into his chest and grabbed his heart. He coughed.

"We still have the better part of the day left. We should do something youthful, and fun!"

"Youthful?" Eido and Quincy cocked their heads.

"Fun?" Ahab wondered.

"I forgot you guys are all idiots," she muttered. Dust, she really needed to teach her teammates how to enjoy themselves like regular kids. "Well, what do you like to do? Let's start from there."

The giant began to rattle off suggestions, counting on his fingers as he went. "I like to train, clean, study, organize the room when all of you are not around, do the laundry-"

"STOP! NOPE! Those are chores! Who's going to want to do that for fun?" She shook her head sadly and gestured to the heir, inviting his response. "Moving on, what about Eido?"

"I like to work on my business portfolio and check up on my associates, in order to keep them on their toes."

"That sounds so shady... next!"

Ahab twiddled his thumbs in embarrassment. "I like to..." He hadn't been doing much in his free time at Beacon, mostly because his meddlesome teammates never left him alone. What did he like to do? He thought back to the happiest feeling he could come up with. Blushing at his own train of thought, he could remember feeling really warm inside the last time they had joined team RWBY and JNPR to eat dinner together, right after their grudge match. Something had struck a chord with him about the whole scene, plucked at his heartstrings and wound up his chest like a vise.

Way too embarrassing to say.

"Well, I like to read."

"That's surprisingly normal, but also boring!" Cammo shouted, climbing "Do you guys just not know how to have fun?"

The boys all shook their heads in surrender. She wouldn't give in and try their hobbies, so they would just have to compromise.

"So, what do you want to do?"

Pause.

"Cammo? Hello?" Eido waved a hand in front of her face.

Her mind began to race a mile a minute. What did she like to do for fun? She played card games, talked with her friends, made new friends, attended social gatherings and partied hard. She liked high tempo music and clubs where she could steal the spotlight easily. She had been hanging out at The Club every once in a while when she had time (and Quincy had noticed her sneaking out at night, but he did nothing besides the usual reprimanding), but that was just for herself. If she took team ECQA with her, she might just be shunned for life. Losing her crowd might just suffocate her. She couldn't do that.

'Who is nice/dumb enough to appreciate the company of these little monsters?' she thought.

And then the lightbulb appeared over her head.

* * *

"Hey guys!"

Ruby waved the others over, and Ahab just couldn't feel as if she was being far too loud in the library. They were attracting attention...

"Oh, hey, the whole gang is here!" Cammo responded with similar volume and Ruby's practically copy-and-pasted smile. Dust, they were ridiculously similar on so many levels. The green girl herself was absolutely ecstatic.

'Yes, weird people! Just what these guys need!'

Plus, she actually liked Ruby more than most people. That genki girl spirit of hers was infectious, not to mention she got excited for everything and everyone, was selfless and just liked to have fun. In Cammo's envious green eyes, Ruby was a girl she did not have to look up to or down to, just enjoy.

Besides, she was easily impressed.

"Tada!" Cammo said, presenting her teammates. "You don't know how much I had to go through to get them to come here."

The boys waved. Eido counted nine other auras in the room, two unidentified characters for him to meet.

"I don't believe we've met," he began, offering his hand to a golden aura he sensed right in front of him. The hand that gripped his in return was mildly calloused (experienced, Eido noted) large and most definitely male.

"Hi. I'm Sun. And this is my nerd friend, Neptune."

The light blue aura spoke up from a long table, seated next to the multitude of colors which made up team JNPR. "Once again, it's intellectual."

"Don't worry, I get it," the heir chuckled. "I'm an... 'intellectual' myself."

The other boy seemed shaken by Eido's smiling, but got used to it rather quickly. "Well, thank you. Not many people in Hunting seem to understand the merits of being well read."

"Knowledge is power."

"Yeah..." Neptune said, slowing his speech cautiously as Quincy lumbered past him, taking a seat nearby and opening a book once again.

'Ah,' Eido mused. 'A coward.' Honestly, Blake and Ruby hadn't been as fazed by the giant.

"Wait, the library?" Ahab hissed into Cammo's ear, already beginning to revert to fetal position and curling his arms around his torso. "Isn't this exactly what we were doing b-b-before?"

"Well, it's not like we're here to read or anything," she replied, attracting a disappointed gaze from Ren. "Besides, just being around other people is a change for the better. You should learn to cope with this many people."

Ahab looked around nervously, keeping a safe distance from the many other students, especially the open shirt kid. 'What are you doing, button your jacket up!' he thought to himself. As he finished his wary sweep of the area, he realized there was one RWBY member missing from the group. The one he had been most anxious to see had already left.

Disappointed, he plopped himself into another chair across from a sleeping Nora. He decided to just keep his head down and ride this one out, and thus did not notice when the valkyrie paused her snoring to glance up and cast the hooded boy a knowing look.

Yeah, Nora could be 'knowing' every now and then.

"So Cammo," Yang chuckled, nudging Weiss to attract her attention. "What's it like being the only girl in a mostly boys team?"

"Oh, you know. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep them all in control." The two of them shared a bout of suggestive snickering, much to Ruby's confusion. It took Weiss a second, but she blushed and kicked Yang for putting that image in her head.

"Hey, we have guys on our team too," Jaune said, chiming in to their conversation.

"Somehow I feel as if this doesn't apply to you and Ren," Pyrrha sighed, shooting the two girls reproachful glares.

"In all seriousness though? Shrinking Violet over there is way too bashful for something like that. Quince is just too nice a guy. Eido... well, he hasn't tried anything yet."

The man in question gestured with a random book he had plucked off the shelves. "I resent your insinuations of perversion and request an immediate withdrawal of that statement."

"Put that away, we know you can't read."

He relented, waggling his eyebrows violently and replacing _Oedipus Next _in its rightful place in the bookcase. A cheap knockoff of the original at worst and a crappy sequel at best.

"So, what are you playing?"

"_Remnant: The Game_. Wanna give it a shot? We could do with less Sun here, too... he keeps winning."

"Why not?"

Sun stood up and drew back the chair, having had his fill of the game. Cammo practically leaped into the seat, ready to be at the head of the kingdom of Vale.

"Kekeke... now I can rule the world..."

"Save it until you beat Ruby. She plays a pretty mean Atlas."

"Its all luck based anyway," Weiss sighed.

"Pssh. It's all skill!" Ruby scoffed.

They began the game, but Ahab couldn't help but feel as if someone was still casting frosty glances at him from behind. Yang and Ruby were laughing and playing along with Cammo, but one girl was not joining in. One girl was still on her toes.

"Looks like I'm not welcome here."

* * *

**Professor Port is so awesome he needs his own adjective.**

**The new cover image, however poorly drawn, is a "full body" of Ahab. Notice on his arm is a little black band? That band has his symbol on it, a half-heart, half-spearhead red on black. So he literally wears his heart on his sleeve. Yeah.**


	23. Wander

"Hey Ahab, you coming or not?"

Cammo hollered to her leader, who was right back to his usual spot on his bed. The lights were off, and he was reading his textbook by the light of his Scroll.

"That is not so good for your eyes, Ahab," Quincy advised.

"I'll survive."

"Come on, we promised we'd meet up with team RWBY for a little study sesh."

"You just go without me. I'll b-b-be fine on my own. I need to f-f-finish this chapter."

The green girl sighed out of the corner of her mouth and shrugged. That kid did whatever he wanted, as usual. Come to think of it, Ahab hadn't been joining in with the rest of the team's endeavors for some time now. Odd, considering team RWBY had gotten on relatively friendly terms with team ECQA.

"Guess he's just not one for fun," she muttered as the door swung shut.

"Make sure to finish the laundry, dear!" Eido called, expecting a response. Receiving nothing in return, the heir ambled off to the library with his teammates, disappointed.

Ahab waited until the other's footsteps could no longer be heard. With one hand, he slammed shut the book and tossed it on his pillow. He wiped a cold sweat from his brow. Had she noticed his lie from the stuttering? No, she couldn't have.

"Now then... what should I do?"

Ahab had, through the magnitude of time he had spent avoiding the others' group activities, read the single textbook from cover to cover. He pawed through his depressingly sparse bookshelf and found nothing interesting.

'Maybe Blake has some books in her room,' he thought, then smacked himself. What, was he considering sneaking into a girl's room? How would he explain that? Moreover, why was that the first place he thought to look?

The library was evidently off limits. He wouldn't be caught dead anywhere near the others, lest they spot him and begin to doubt his motives. Taking this into account, Ahab's face fell; his only pastime, reading, had been invalidated. Maybe he could study that last chapter again..?

He reached out to the textbook once more and gave up halfway. The thought of poring over that boring material for the third time today made his stomach turn.

How about surfing the web for a bit? He flicked the screen of his Scroll lightly and opened the Google search bar.

Pause.

What was he looking for?

That was depressing. The internet, a collection of nearly all mankind's knowledge, was at his fingertips, and he didn't know what to search for. That was like being given a genie and not knowing what to wish for because you had no real dreams. Being given a supercomputer and letting it sit in your garage because you don't feel like learning anything.

He tossed aside the similes. Any more philosophical speculation and he might lose the will to live. To begin with, just choose a word of the top of his head and see what it leads to. Ahab smiled a little; he could broaden his horizons from the safety of his room. No need to leave these walls to learn some random things he didn't care about.

He typed in, letter by letter, 'hello'.

The screen turned dark. "Hello," the Scroll whispered back.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood to attention. He jumped and threw the device across the room. No need for devices that talk back around here!

Ahab was alone in a dark room with nothing to do.

"It'll be okay if they don't see me. Right?"

He gathered his courage and made his way to the door.

* * *

The amphitheater was only visited routinely by a few dedicated students; most found the incessant training to be either too strenuous or too time consuming without a definite reward. Compared to studying, which was practically mandatory for passing the mainstream classes, no one had the time to truly perfect their combat techniques.

That is, unless they forwent another aspect of student life altogether. For example, friendly interaction.

Ahab tip toed tentatively onto the grounds, waving nervously to the ever enduring Yatsuhashi. The upperclassman was finishing his dozenth or so rep of 100 sword swings, the heavy blade moving through the air like the arm of an iron giant. The huge swordsman was one of the few who preferred the excessive strain of training to monotonous schoolwork.

Still, three people in the amphitheater was too many for Ahab to work around. He positioned himself in a far off corner and began practice. There was one skill that he alone had to hone in his free time.

He knelt down on the ground, palms up, and exerted all of his force into his wrists. He contracted his muscles in an odd motion, pushing up and out. A familiar tingling beneath his skin greeted him. The tingling slowly but surely became an itching, then a scraping, then a ripping.

Clenching his teeth, he let his weapon tear through his palm and leave behind a mess of stringy tendons. He flexed Titanium Vengeance to its full length, breathing hard, then retracted them.

He took a moment to let his aura heal up his hands to their former state. Once satisfied that all the muscles were in their proper place once again, without waiting for the residual pain to fade, he repeated.

It had actually been a little while since he had preformed this 'exercise'. All the more reason to get it done now.

* * *

"Where's Ahab?" Ruby asked.

"Oh yeah... I didn't notice he was missing," Yang mused. "Probably because he never said anything before."

Eido arched one eyebrow. "You didn't notice? He only came to the library once with us. The past few days he hasn't even been here."

"Wait, really?" Ruby rubbed her head. "I'm pretty sure he was here though."

"Well, it doesn't make much of a difference, does it?" mumbled Weiss from her own place around the table. "If you didn't notice him the last few times, it doesn't really matter that he didn't show up. He probably got bored of us immediately and went off to do his own thing."

"Don't worry about him," Cammo told Ruby, ignoring the heiress completely. "He's finishing up some of his studying alone. He said he was really behind and didn't want to slow us down." Despite her reassuring words, her voice was entirely dead.

"Seriously? Well, okay..."

"Yeah, no problems," Eido said listlessly.

A silence descended on the study group, apathetic in some cases and solemn in others.

"Why the heck are we studying?"

* * *

Ahab panted raggedly. Thank goodness he had been facing a wall, or the splatter might have attracted attention. The area of the amphitheater where he had been training was painted red.

"Blood, sweat and tears," he whispered, staring down at his hands. Without even glancing at his scroll, he knew he was beginning to run low on aura; his wounds were taking far longer to heal than they had before, and some damage remained visible even once his regeneration stopped.

He mentally praised himself for his good work and raised himself to his knees shakily. Tremors of pain were still echoing through his body from the experience, but he only saw that as a mark of how hard he had trained. Sure, he couldn't exercise as effectively as his peers (his healing factor had a tendency to mitigate tears in his muscles without adding extra bulk), but he could always practice his technique in place of strengthening his body.

This was one thing he could excel in: aura control and endurance. Years of training with his regeneration and semblance had supplied him with particularly deep reserves of power. This was his own personal thesis which he had submitted to Professor Ozpin for the right to enter Beacon despite his financial situation: aura, much like a Hunter's body, can be exercised and strengthened to perfection. If one's aura was the manifestation of the soul, then trying and damaging the soul bit by bit would toughen it to routine use and abuse.

Years ago it would have taken him a good hour to recover from minor wounds like these. Now it took him less than thirty seconds.

Progress.

Of course, it still hurt like a bitch.

The mess would clean itself up eventually; his blood didn't stay in one place for too long. Not wanting to force another student to look at his gory artwork, he waited for it to drain away off the wall and into his veins once more. Sage advice from Ahab Omobi: 'Always pick up your area once you are finished using it.'

Hobbling with what little energy he had left in him and exhausted by his 'workout', Ahab made his way around the remaining students and towards the exit. Mission accomplished, and no teammates in sight. It had taken him... an hour perhaps? He had lost track of time, and checked his Scroll casually to make sure of his intuition.

It was half past six. Two and a half hours since he had left for the amphitheater.

"Uh oh," he hissed, and picked up his pace ever so slightly. No need to attract attention to himself, he could still make it back before his team did, right? Right?

A hand fell on his shoulder, immobilizing him. Ahab shivered.

As the hooded boy turned to face his apprehended, his jaw dropped. Of all the people to catch him, he was now face to face with Yatsuhashi.

"Wh-wh-wh-wh-" he stuttered. 'What do you want?' was his intended query, but the shock of the situation was overwhelming. Through his hoodie, he could feel just how heavy and battle hardened the upperclassman's hand was. The closeness made him uncomfortable, and the older boy's sheer size didn't make him feel any safer.

"Don't hurt yourself."

Yatsuhashi lifted his massive paw from Ahab's shoulder and walked on past, en route to the locker rooms. Ahab watched him carefully the whole way. Out of all the things he wanted to say to that, one question burned in his mind.

"He could talk?"

* * *

"Alright, I want an explanation."

Team ECQA's unlit room was abandoned except for the heir and Ahab, but there were obvious signs that Cammo had stopped by recently. Ahab's mattress had been flipped onto the adjacent bed and his belongings scattered in a fit of frustration. Eido's arms were crossed aggressively, bearing down on Ahab even though they both knew the heir couldn't possibly be looking down on him. Eido was a psychologically oriented prodigy, so he could use human nature to drive a point home if he needed. It was ridiculously effective: Ahab was paralyzed.

"I-I-I d-didn't think you w-would be b-b-back so early."

"Don't screw with me, Ahab. You said you were studying, that you has stuff you had to do. We didn't bother finding out what stuff you wanted to do, but we let it slide. We wanted to let you have your space, but you're only using it to avoid us."

"Th-th-that's not what I meant by it, I-I-I-"

"You what? You didn't want to lie to us, but you didn't want to tell the truth?" Eido's tone was that of a reprimanding mother, unfitting of his cruel features. A commanding master's voice would have suited him better, but he relaxed into a gentle sigh. "I thought we talked about this together. We need to be able to share everything if we're going to be a team, you especially. Aren't you the leader?"

"SO?!" Ahab burst out in rage. "Why am I the one who's supposed to carry the team?"

"We're not expecting you to carry the team, we're expecting you to be a part of it. We agreed that we would talk about our troubles with each other, so why are you hiding things from us?"

"Who cares? It would be better if I wasn't here! You guys are perfectly fine on your own!"

"We're not fine on our own. We need you- no, we want you to be with us. Why can't you get that through your thick skull? Why are you trying to distance yourself from us?!" Eido's volume was steadily rising, shattering his calm visage and revealing a bitter scowl.

"I don't WANT to put distance between us! I just don't need other people in my life either! I'm perfectly happy with our team just the way it is!"

"So what's the problem, huh? You don't want to share us with team RWBY? You think we're going to leave you behind?"

"THAT'S NOT IT!" Ahab spat, his hood falling back and showing his face contorted in fury. "I just don't want other people being a part of our group! I'm happy with our team just... just the way it is. With our family... I'm happy..."

Hot tears welled in his eyes, stinging his cheeks like fire. He tried to bury his head in his scarf, but Eido grabbed him by both sides of the skull and yanked his head up to meet his red metal gaze.

"You don't want to associate with people outside the team? The _family_? FINE! JUST MAKE THEM PART OF THE FAMILY, DAMMIT!" The heir brought his face close enough to touch his crooked nose to Ahab's, breathing steam into the trembling boy's eyes. "DON'T JUST LEAVE YOUR OWN FRIENDS OUT TO DRY, ASSHOLE!"

They held each other in place for a moment, silently daring each other to continue. The fire faded out as quickly as it had flared up. Eido let go of Ahab's head and let the boy drop to the ground, his legs giving out underneath him.

"Short Stuff and Quincy are waiting at dinner. She's pissed as fuck, too, so you better have a good excuse."

Ahab nodded slowly.

The door swung closed and left the hooded leader swimming in blackness.

* * *

**Sorry for the delay on this (though its not as long as with my other stories, heheh). One might think April vacation would be a perfect time for me to binge write, but I had other things to do. Like, ummmm, climbing the League of Legends solo queue. And eating.**

**So yeah, I know I've been writing a lot of filler recently, but LOOK, IT KINDA SORTA HAD A POINT! :D That being said, this is a little bit heavier than the usual stuff. Of course Weiss wouldn't appreciate Ahab around, because he's kind of associated with his macabre fighting style now, and he takes it a little harder than expected...**

**Also, aura training. That's another concept I wanted to address, because like regular exercise I assumed that more experienced people would have better control or more endurance aura-wise than total noobs (Jaune being my noob example, Fox being my pro example). It just wouldn't sit right with me if that was a birth or talent-based thing.**

**That's all for now. Thanks for reading and have a good day :D**


	24. Family

Ahab didn't show up at dinner that night, leaving a furious Cammo to take her anger out on her mashed potatoes.

"That little shit..." she grumbled, stirring her meal into a lukewarm vortex and stabbing into it viciously.

"Of course he will not appear if you are in such a state," Quincy pointed out. "Wrath is a cardinal sin."

"He _will_ show up if he knows what's fucking good for him," the girl growled, tearing a side of beef to shreds. "He's my trap, he needs to get his damn act together."

A tray clunked emptily on the table, and Cammo turned to greet the heir. She nodded politely, then scowled as she noticed how he was alone.

"No luck?"

Eido shook his head solemnly.

"Son of a..." she hissed, tightening her hands around an imaginary neck in front of her.

"Are you sure that is enough dinner for you, Master Pitch?" Quincy noted.

Eido smiled weakly. "I'm just not feeling too hungry."

"Ah~, I see," Cammo drawled. "You're not too happy with Short Stuff, are you?"

"Well, yeah. Also, that's your nickname."

"It's his name now, I want a new one. Still," she chuckled, picking her teeth with her pinky finger, "I'm surprised crooked old Eido can feel bad for someone else's sake."

"Don't be ridiculous," the heir cackled, his sorrow melting away and giving way to a wide, evil grin. "If Ahab is avoiding us, our grade might go down. Not to mention we won't have any chances to embarrass him in front of the girls."

"There we go," the green girl sighed, disappointment rolling in her lazy eyes. "That's more like the Eido I know."

"Exactly," he grinned, leaning forward to scoop more mashed potatoes in his mouth. The rich taste came and went without acknowledgment, dulled by an odd numbness in his tongue.

* * *

Team ECQA simply decided to tuck in early after a rather silent dinner.

"Somehow, I'm already exhausted," Cammo grumbled.

"You should not lie," Quincy said gently. "You just do not want to speak with Ahab, correct?"

"Don't preach to me," she snapped. "I'm not in the mood for it."

"If you say so."

Cammo practically kicked open the door to their dorm.

"G'NIGHT!" she hollered, purposely ignoring the curled up figure on a recently redone mattress. At her call, he obediently put away his schoolwork and lay on his side, facing the wall. Receiving no response, Cammo dove into bed and stared down the opposite wall.

Quincy looked back and forth between the two, then smiled and muttered a quiet "Good night" to the heir. The two of them changed clothes swiftly and without a word. Eido was the last to get into bed, flicking off the lights and making his way easily through the darkness.

* * *

A slight rustling roused Eido. He was on the verge of springing out of bed, but the noise was coming from his left and not the entrance. He would have heard an intruder coming in, so this sound had to be...

Ahab sat up next to him. The boy looked around sleepily and felt about his surroundings, his hand coming into contact with Eido's.

"What-" the heir began, but the hooded boy's sudden movement stopped him. Before he could register what was going on, Ahab was cautiously clambering under the covers of his neighbor.

"Aha-" he attempted again. He could feel something gripping onto the front of his chest, stealing the air from his lungs. A little pill of a person, wrapped in a heavy cotton hoodie, had snuggled his way into a cranny in Eido's sleeping position. The boy's rising and falling breath made him seem like a huge beating heart in the heir's arms.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice trembling like dangling water droplets over a balcony.

Neither could see the other's face, nor gauge their expressions. Eido chose not to activate his semblance and remained blind. They just lay there, unconsciously synchronizing their breathing and feeling each other's warmth.

After a few minutes, Eido replied. "It's okay."

By then, Ahab was slumbering once more.

* * *

Ahab woke up and yawned subtly, covering his gaping mouth with a red cloaked hand. Ah, speaking of which, he pulled back his sleeve and inspected his palm once more. No marks were left.

Groaning and stretching, he stretched from side to side. Dust, what had happened yesterday? He was all sore for some reason. All he could remember was his pretty standard training...

His attention shot to the dozing heir beside him.

"What... what did I do?"

"OI!" Cammo hollered, pointing accusingly at Ahab from her double-height bed. "WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING AROUND AT A TIME LIKE THIS?" The hooded boy fell backwards, gasping incoherently and attempting to form words in vain. The back of his head smacked into the mattress and he curled into a ball once more to defend himself from the empress' accusations.

Eido dragged himself up and groaned. "What's with all the noise? I'm feeling uncharacteristically tired today... got no sleep last night."

"NO SLEEP?" Cammo demanded, attracting the attention of the giant.

"I smell sinners!" he muttered, still half dreaming.

"Wait, no, i-i-i-i-i-i-i-" Come to think of it, 'It's not what it looks like' would just bring to mind all sorts of awful imagery.

"DID YOU BANG?" she yelled, causing the team leader to cringe and tumble underneath Eido's bed in embarrassment.

"Ms. Deuce, the earplugs," Quincy muttered as he rubbed vision back into his eyes.

"WHAT?" Quincy gestured to his ears and mimed removing the plugs. "OH! I mean, oh," she said, reducing her volume significantly.

"Goodness, you may have awoken the entire dormitory," the giant yawned.

"The pursuit of knowledge, Quince. This is a scholarly quest."

"Do not use the word scholar to address this shameless topic," Quincy muttered, getting out of bed and reaching up to straighten his back, scraping the ceiling with only his right hand. Cammo tucked and rolled, dropping onto her partner's bed with a "whump" before hopping into her lime green slippers.

"Man, the excitement levels are way too high this morning."

"That would be your fault, Ms. Deuce."

She scratched herself and waved dismissively. "Whatever. I personally had a good night's rest. Up and ready for action."

"A pleasant change from your usual crankiness, I agree."

"Moreover, did you guys use protection?"

"NO!" Ahab shouted. "I mean, th-th-there was no need for that! Wait, no, it's not-"

Eido flopped back onto his bed and fell promptly asleep. He was far too tired to go to classes already. He might just pass out in his pancakes if he left the dorm now.

"Who's the uke and who's the seme?" she cackled like an old geezer, but Quincy frowned and gripped her mouth with one huge hand.

"Come now, we need to wake you up a little more."

"Unfan ee you fief! (Unhand me you fiend!)" Cammo cursed from within his clutches as the giant dragged her to the bathroom by her jaw. "I vill haf revensh! (I will have revenge!)"

"Of course, later." Standing in the doorframe, Quincy turned back and stared gravely at Ahab.

"I will have you know I do not approve of such shallow relationshi-"

"We didn't do anything!" Ahab protested from beneath the bed.

* * *

**Short chapter. Just to be clear, Ahab is into girls and certainly didn't mean anything too weird when he did what he did. It's closer to a youngest child of the family thing or something, more maternal than sexual. Also, Quincy has nothing against homosexual relationships, but does have something against relationships which delve into *ahem* physical aspects too early. He does have rather old-fashioned values after all.  
**

**Thanks for reading my mindless drivel. Have a good day. Leave a review if you wanna. Yep, all bases covered. I'm going to bed.**

**A word of advice: do not stay up late binge writing with club music blaring in your earbuds. It really sucks the morning after.**


	25. Changeless

"H-h-h-hi."

Ruby and her teammates gave Ahab a blank stare, watching him tremble like a leaf in a hurricane. Then the hooded girl broke into a huge smile.

"Ahab! You came this time!"

"Uuh, yeah..." He blushed and wrung his hands behind his back. "S-s-sorry for b-b-bailing." His voice squeaked out in a near whisper, fading away as he grew ever more conscious of the many eyes on him. Crud, he should have just come anyway beforehand. How could he have predicted that his lack of presence would attract more attention?

"Man, we were beginning to get worried," Yang chuckled as the rest of team ECQA filed into place around the table. "I thought you didn't want to hang out with us."

"Oh, it's not that..." he whimpered and took an empty seat in the corner. 'And now I gave them a bad impression of me! AAAGH!' he screamed internally.

Blake, clearly uninterested in his appearance, went straight back to her book. Ruby was beaming and going directly on the offensive, peppering him with probing questions she hadn't had the time to ask the last time they had met. "So what were you doing? Are you really bad with school? Like, worse than me? That's a relief... so what's your weapon?"

Oh Monty, she had seen him fight before. Did she not notice the weapon last time? And wait, she just mentally answered his question for him without even waiting for an answer! 'This girl... is a handful...'

He struggled to get a word in. "Ummm, I... w-w-well..." Dust, her speed was overpowering even in casual conversation. Was this an interrogation? He was already locked in place by the eyes of his teammates, so escape was not an option. His defense was nonexistent, so his only option was... an attack!

"Ijustneededsomespace," he rattled, breaking through her steadily quickening pace with his outburst. Ruby gave him a puzzled look, then laughed.

"Oh, of course! No problem, I understand. Sometimes I feel like Weiss is being too Weissy, so I pop in on the Weapon Dev department for fun. Yep, yep, space is a good thing!"

And so her rapid fire mono/dialogue continued. He cursed internally, as Weiss had all of a sudden been dragged into the fray.

"Hey, what do you mean by 'Weissy'?"

"Nothing, nothing. Oh hey, Ahab, we look really similar! Like, if you took off the scarf and maybe took down the hood..."

"N-n-n-no thanks!" He declined, flapping his hands uselessly in denial. "I-I need the hood at least!"

"Oh sure, no problem. Say, what do you think about cookies?"

"I... like them?"

"Me too! Well, not so much like as love. I love cookies!"

"Oh my Grimm, me too!" Cammo jumped up and high fived Ruby out of nowhere. 'Wait, what? When did you join?' This was getting a little too complicated for Ahab's antisocial brain to handle...

"I still don't understand what you mean by 'Weissy'," Weiss snapped, pulling lightly on Ruby's ear and pinching.

"Ow ow ow... There! Right there! That's Weissy!"

"Ruby, we should have a cookie party!"

"That's an AMAZING idea! Oh, but Ahab, maybe the hood thing can come off for the dance! Right, the dance!"

'Eh? What? Cookies? Weissy?' Ahab's train of thought, on its singular track, had difficulty following Ruby's more versatile mind. She jumped around quickly from subject to subject, then back to the original topic in a flash.

"That's right, Ahab. How about we help you pick out a dress?" Cammo's eyes were sparkling, and Eido's interest was suddenly piqued. His mouth curled into an impish grin.

"Ahab in a dress? That I'd like to see."

"Oh, haha, we get it," the green girl deadpanned.

"Shame on you," Quincy rumbled. "Ahab's sexuality is his to decide. Besides, crossdressing is a perverse habit."

"But he'd just look... weird in a suit. Like, all stiff shoulders. That's nothing like him."

"I'd prefer to n-n-not..."

"No, I think a suit could work. We just tighten the waistline rather than the chest and it could look just fine."

Yang chuckled. "He'd look like a little toy soldier."

"I agree with him on this one!" Ruby declared, getting behind Ahab and drawing a line between herself, the dress faction and the suit faction. "I don't think we should be forced to wear formal attire for this dance! You see, four score and many fights ago, I decided that my career at Beacon would be comfortable and fun! And dresses," she said, staring pointedly at Yang, "Are not fun!"

Ahab nodded frantically. "No dress, please!"

"Down with dresses!"

"Well, not so much of that..." He kind of wanted to see what Blake looked like in a dress...

Yang stood up and moved to join Eido and Cammo on the dress side of the table. "Formal wear is just another part of life! Y'know, like taxes and alcohol. It may or may not be fun, but you do it anyway! Except for taxes, because we don't do those. And alcohol, because it's always fun..."

"That reminds me, do you have any drink left?" Eido inquired.

"Shhh!" she hissed. "Beacon rules are really strict! If anyone finds out about that, I'm dead!" She glanced around quickly, then whispered, "I won't have any more until later tomorrow. I'm... going on a little expedition, so I'll bring some back then."

Team RWBY all looked at each other nervously. Exactly what 'expedition' entailed, Ahab didn't know.

"Sweet, can you share?"

"Depends... how much money do you carry on you?"

Eido turned to her, dead serious. "How much do you need?"

"It's not about what I need, it's about what I want."

"Two hundred Lien."

"DUST, that's a lot right off the bat! Aren't you supposed to start low and slowly negotiate?"

"Eh? Oh right. Two Lien."

"You're really pushing it..."

Ruby ignored their discussion, which was far beyond her field of interest. Drink? Money? No thank you, she preferred cookies and weapons of the massive variety. Instead, she spoke to Blake and Weiss.

"So what do you say, dress or no dress?"

"I'd prefer he keep his clothes on. Dress," Blake answered without hesitation.

"No, that's not what I meant! Dress or casual clothes, dress or casual..."

"Who cares? It's not like I'm going."

"Awwww..." Ruby's face fell. "But c'mon..."

"No means no, Ruby." Blake stood up and gave a curt goodbye to the group, then proceeded to check out her book.

...

"Well, I'm all for dressing up," said Weiss. "Looking good for formal events sort of comes naturally to me."

"Ah, I see," Cammo snickered. "So you're the showy type."

"Well, it's just the way I was brought up. I'm always on display for some dance or whatever. Honestly, it gets boring having everyone's eyes on me constantly..."

Cammo bit her thumb as she listened to Weiss rant on about being the center of attention. 'You bitch! Do you know how damn lucky you are?'

She did not verbalize this thought. That might get her the wrong kind of attention and ostracize her from the group.

"Yeah, yeah, so you say," Yang interjected. "But we all know our lovely princess just likes dressing up."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I only do the bare minimum of what is required of me and will _not_ let you criticize me for that."

"You're a narcissist," Cammo translated.

"And you're one to talk. I'm a socialite, it's what I do." Weiss answered frankly, seeing nothing wrong with it. That was her way of life, so why was the shorter girl getting so aggressive?

"Alright, but dress or no dress?"

"Dress please. I am highly against public nudity."

"Like I said, that's not what it means~" Ruby whined. "Besides, we already used that joke!"

"Can we not talk about me being naked? Or in a d-d-d-dress for that matter?"

"Oh please, you know you want to try it..."

"I think he's had enough for now," Quincy said commandingly. The intention was clear: this conversation was over. All eyes turned to him as he smiled and gently emphasized the work in front of them, nudging them towards productivity.

The group was silent for a moment. Pencils scratched on paper. For a glorious three seconds, the students were students.

"So are Ren and Nora still not dating yet?"

"You always default back to that..."

* * *

"Oh, would you look at that."

"Har dee har har. We know you can't look at anything, so give it a rest."

Team ECQA was assembled in their room in their usual positions. While the attempts to find other things to do had been successful, they continually found themselves gravitating to the same spots: Cammo and Eido in the center, Quincy in the chair, Ahab on his bed. Today, Eido was fiddling around with his laptop as Cammo constructed a card castle. She was never going to beat the heir at poker, so she might as well put the damn things to use. Level four, and still no disturbances to threaten her creation.

"No, I'm totally serious. Apparently veteran-assisted missions are going to start right after the Beacon dance."

"Uuuuuuuu~" Upon hearing the heir's words, Ahab emitted a noise comparable to a dying seal.

Eido raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, is there a problem?"

"What's all the focus on the dance about? I'd really prefer some less hype around here."

"Woah, I wasn't even talking about the dance," the heir defended himself. "I'm more interested in the missions."

"What's got your panties in a bunch?" Cammo asked, not daring to divert her attention from the card castle, now swaying gently upon reaching level five.

"It's just, the whole thing has so many... negative connotations! What do you think of when you talk about the dance?"

"Dancing, drinking, partying."

"Dancers, drunkards, party people."

"A night of enjoyable youthful activity, facilitated by low lights and loud music." Cammo, Eido and Quincy answered each in turn.

"No, besides that!"

"Dress or no dress?"

"NO! Like... ~~~~." Ahab croaked weakly, and his teammates all leaned in simultaneously to hear just what he had said under his breath.

"Say that again?"

"Like... love n' stuff..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Three Hunters were stunned silent.

"Don't look at me like that! That's what everybody's thinking, right?"

Cammo returned her concentration to her card castle and began working on level six. "I'm pretty sure you're the only one thinking about that kind of stuff. Not everyone is wound up as tightly as you are."

"I'm not wound up, th-that's what happens!" Ahab shouted, blushing a deep crimson. His forcefulness almost toppled the card tower, and Cammo gave him a strong glare. "Like," he continued, lowering his voice in fear, "don't you think, 'Oh, look at all the couples going together. Maybe I should... bring a date?'"

"That's remarkably perceptive of you," Eido said, closing the screen of his laptop. "I didn't realize you could observe and recognize a couple when you saw one. Aren't you supposed to be totally incapable of understanding society?"

"There is not _that_ much focus on romance during these events," said Quincy. "At least, not as much as you may think. There is nothing wrong with being a part of the single majority.

"Yeah, not every character needs a confirmed pairing," Cammo agreed, then cursed as the fourth wall of her tower trembled. "Don't you fall on me now, you little..."

"But don't you guys think about this stuff at _all_? I can't be the only one who kinda... sorta... maybe kinda wants a date..."

"Huh... well, I guess I can see where you're coming from..." Cammo mused. "If I could hook myself a really good looking guy, I'm sure it would attract some attention..."

"Your heart is obviously in the wrong place," Quincy rumbled. "Relationships for the sake of relationships never succeed. It is far wiser to wait until one has the wisdom and experience to consider marriage."

"And that is why you have no girlfriend, Quince."

"Because I choose not to?"

"...yeah..." Eido grimaced. That was a lot smoother than he had expected.

"Well, there's definitely other reasons..." Cammo snickered.

*POP*

Sand spilled onto the floor. Quincy reached for the dustpan, which he had on standby nowadays. In the resulting silence, the first one to falter was none other than Cammo's card castle, who trembled and fell apart pitifully.

"Anyways," Eido jumped in to change the subject. "If you're so worked up over the dance, why not do something else to distract yourself? There's something slightly interesting here..."

"Sure," Ahab groaned. "Anything to stop thinking about he- i mean the dance."

"Anything?"

"Somehow, I feel like that was a poor choice of words."

"Don't worry about it. More importantly, don't you want to kill Grimm mindlessly?"

Quincy looked up, then averted his eyes just as quickly. It would not serve him well to be seen as mindless.

"Killing Grimm is always fun," Cammo nodded sadly, mourning her fallen castle. "Why not?"

"I'm honestly worried about you two... but okay."

"Perfect," the heir cackled, grinning wide. "I'll make the necessary... preparations."

"Please tell me you know just how evil you look right now."

* * *

**I'm fishing for a fight scene! To pass time until the dance, Eido's going to hook them an easy mission.**

**Cammo's tower almost survived the chapter. Almost.**


	26. Spice of Life

"Come in."

Team ECQA marched into Ozpin's office in an uncharacteristically formal way, stepping in a straight line from shortest to tallest with the exception of Cammo. Though she was taller than Ahab, even if just by a little bit, she walked in front of him with her chest puffed out proudly. She smirked and gave the headmaster a little wave.

"Oh dear," Ozpin muttered under his breath. That was not a good look to be getting from such a snarky troublemaker. What did she have planned this time?

Goodwitch walked in behind her students and presented the headmaster with a folder full of papers. The thing was practically an entire ream thick and considerably heavy, judging from the audible *whump* it made as it hit his desk. Ozpin flinched as he noticed a little crunch and remembered where he had laid his fountain pen. That was not coming out unscathed.

He tried to smooth over the sudden intrusion and took a sip of coffee. By Monty, would he be needing it. It wasn't just team ECQA who would be a problem; Ms. Goodwitch looked considerably pissed for some reason or other.

"So, what brings you to my office?" he began conversationally. Immediately, Goodwitch jumped in, bursting forwards as if she had been bottling up her anger in search of a listener.

"Headmaster, you have to talk some sense into these students!" she begged. "Their demands are outrageous for their current level of combat training, and the very idea is just... absurd!"

"Calm down, Glynda," Ozpin soothed, careful not to sound too patronizing. If he pissed her off now, who knows what might happen? He was not truly afraid of Glynda Goodwitch, but he definitely respected her power. "If one of you," he said, gesturing to the group, "could explain what is going on, that would be appreciated."

"Well..." Ahab started weakly. Cammo jumped in.

"We're looking to take on a team mission. Hopefully before the dance. Tomorrow at the latest."

Oh dear.

"And what would be the... reasoning behind this?"

"We're bored. Kind of want to let off some steam."

"..."

_Oh dear._ He could see Goodwitch trembling from rage as the short Huntress-in-training prattled on casually. "To be honest, classes have been getting kinda boring recently. We just thought, y'know, some variety would be nice. Like they say, bloodlust is the spice of life."

"You mean 'variety'," Quincy mumbled.

"I said variety," Cammo hissed back.

Ozpin, at a loss for what to do, pinched the rim of his nose.

"And? What kind of mission would you want?"

"No supervisor. Some minor sightseeing. Perhaps a little... okay, a lot of fighting. Send us on a mission like Team RWBY."

"Team RWBY isn't going on missions, and neither are you," Goodwitch declared. "The risk is just too high, and we can't simply let students run around the city with weapons!"

"The city? Oh, that's a good idea. Send us to Vale or something, we'll complete the mission _and_ get ice cream."

"Can you t-t-try to be serious for a second?" Ahab sighed. Ozpin imitated his defeatist attitude, slumping in his chair ever so slightly and shrugging. He could simply turn Team ECQA away, right? If it came down to it, the right decision would be to keep his students safe. Then again, Cammo was bouncing on her heels in anticipation. The girl knew that she could win, but why?

He fingered the threatening mound of papers lightly. "And what is this?"

Eido spoke up this time. "I took the luxury of compiling some reference documents, recommendations, et cetera. I just thought I should come prepared for the meeting."

Ah, of course. The boy genius, Mr. Pitch. He had probably pumped all of these pages out in less than an hour to overwhelm him with evidence. The boy knew that Ozpin didn't have the time nor the patience to go through all of this paperwork. What he was gunning for was shock value, without a doubt.

And he got it. The sheer size was certainly intimidating, but the first few papers were all sound research. Eido had prepared for any location they might be sent to, and the faculty was already aware that each team member here could handle large Grimm alone, no problem at all. In all honesty, he could not see why Glynda would be upset. These were capable Hunters, albeit first years, who could literally survive through anything.

Of course, Glynda herself was the issue. How would the rest of the school see this? A challenge to low level students to throw themselves into danger? A mockery of the training and mission systems which all of the older students had thus far obeyed? Simple negligence on the part of the administration?

He shook his head. Since when did that matter to him? If his students were ready, they might as well go for it. That wasn't necessarily his motto, but it was somewhat of a secondary or tertiary commandment for him.

"Glynda, what are these students' combat scores?"

"Well, all above average, but-"

"And their grades?"

"They range from perfect to exemplary."

"And work ethic?"

"Rather low, actually..."

"Perfect. Why don't we do it?"

Cammo jumped for joy, her hair ties clacking around jovially. The boys exchanged high fives.

"Wait, but there is one more issue."

"Hmmm?"

"While Ms. Deuce has been improving, she and Mr. Omobi are still in the supplementary class for ranged combat."

Ah, that was a problem. Not a huge problem, but a definite detriment nonetheless. He would be sending students into close quarters with their enemies, a considerably more dangerous task.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. I've been doing just fine in that class!"

"That's not the problem... you don't need the grade, you need the capabilities."

"I can use the tommy gun just fine! Like, who aims with those things?"

"That may be true," Goodwitch sighed, "but Mr. Omobi is still, well... somewhat inept with ranged weaponry. We still cannot consider your suggestion."

Cammo smacked Ahab across the chest. The boy stumbled, and Ozpin winced at the blow. His video feed had clips of the girl tearing through metal at full force, so that backhand could not have been very gentle.

"Do it."

What?

Ahab coughed and spluttered, composing himself. Then, without warning, he thrust a straight kick to the side. There was a horrible sound, like saran wrapping tearing, and the boy's shoes were run through by a protruding harpoon. As he extended his leg, the weapon launched with a metallic clunk and soared through the air, leaving a bloody trail in its flight path along with a length of wire. The harpoon struck against the clock face behind Ozpin's desk, clanging off of the tip of the hour hand.

There was a deep indent in the metal.

"I think this will be sufficient for marksmanship purposes," Eido spoke, containing his laughter at Goodwitch's expression.

Ozpin shoved the now blood-spattered stack of paper off of his desk into a waste disposal bin. "Yes, that will be enough. I believe we can give you the details by tomorrow morning."

Ahab, hobbling slightly and reeling the harpoon back in, was picked up by Quincy as the team turned to exit the office. Goodwitch looked on, horrified, as the team casually left the room. She waited until they were all through the door.

"Why are you letting them go... in that condition?"

Ozpin smiled. "Mr. Omobi is a rather interesting student. His fighting style hurts himself, but he's willing to go that far for the smallest things. It's because he cares so much about his team that he can mangle himself as he does without a care."

"It's preposterous."

"It's what he does. Perhaps it's not so healthy, but he believes that what he does is right. And as teachers, shouldn't we support that?"

"Scandalous. You're advocating his suicide."

"He will live through it. If he truly thinks he is on the right path, it is our duty to comply. Didn't he just show you his conviction?"

She bit her lip nervously. Ozpin always did what he wanted, and this was no exception. Did the man just no realize how dangerous it was? A strong student is not the same thing as a strong Hunter.

* * *

"Alright, you guys are getting off here."

Ahab thanked the driver again for his service. The bullhead pilot only tipped his hat at the team and smiled. _Nice kids, _he thought, turning around his opinion from their first meeting. At least they knew their manners.

"So, are you going to let us down?" Cammo inquired, cocking one eyebrow.

"Nope. Have fun with the drop." The pilot gave them a wide, unprofessional grin and opened the hatch door remotely, welcoming in rushing air currents that threatened to whisk the smaller students away.

Ahab was the first to jump. Well, fall, but it accomplished the same thing. Eido dove after him, whipping his weapon into gear, followed by Cammo and Quincy. The green girl drew breath. She didn't want to be the last one out of the airship, but she didn't have a fool proof landing strategy this time. The landscape was far more open, the nearest handhold at least 50 meters away from her landing site.

Well, at least she got moving before Quincy.

Why didn't the school supply their students with parachutes? Was that just not considered necessary? Not everyone could be put back together as easily as their team leader.

The wind screamed past her cheeks, cutting into them, and she grit her teeth. She blinked the tears from her eyes and turned her back to the earth below, trying to think of a plan. That's when she looked up and saw Quincy, arms outstretched to catch her.

"Spread out your weight," he called amiably as he drew his own body into a streamlined rocket and shot towards her. Cammo, understanding immediately, flung her arms to the side and let the air resistance slow her fall. The distance between them shrunk until the giant could put his hands around her waist, and he swiftly pulled her into his chest and aimed his weapons at the ground.

"Now hold on tight."

The explosion reverberated through Cammo as they turned into a backwards comet, a trail of fire blazing between their bodies and the cold, hard ground. Their descent eased. A few tense seconds of constant firing later, Quincy touched his feet to the earth, still holding Cammo in his arms.

"There we go."

"Good job, Quince," Cammo said, praising him like an obedient dog.

Eido nodded, expressing his approval of the giant while attempting to sweep pieces of Ahab into one pile and speed up the regeneration. The result of the boy's fall was, as usual, a bloody mess. Cammo averted her eyes casually, and Quincy focused very intently on Eido alone.

"So where will we venture from this point?"

Eido shrugged. "Why are you asking a blind man for directions?"

"I'd say just over that hill over there," Cammo muttered. "There's supposed to be some ruins that are serving as gathering places for Grimm. That's why the Bullhead couldn't be brought too close; we'd alert them to our presence."

"Then let's get going."

* * *

**I'm tired. My schedule is messed up. I'll just leave this as is.**

**Yeah, turns out Ozpin is really lax with persistent students. Like Dumbledore with Gryffindors. Or Camp Half-Blood and the Power Trio. Come to think of it, main protagonists can pretty much ignore the rules as they please. I mean, if it happened with RWBY, it can happen with ECQA.**

**Thanks for reading my drivel. Good night. I need to sleep/read shoujo manga. Mostly the latter.**


	27. Ruins

The team split into two groups to cover more area. Ahab and Cammo went around the left bend, further from the forest to their right, while Eido and Quincy took the other side. Cammo was ready to fight Grimm, but the entire woods seemed to be brimming with malice, enough to deter even the proud empress.

"C'mon, shorty."

"Eh? But what if we run into Grimm along the way? Shouldn't we be with the othe-"

"Don't be such a wuss. If it's a big group, we'll see them coming. No problems whatsoever."

Ahab shut up promptly. Cammo had certainly changed a bit, not joking around as much as she did during the initiation. The look on her face was confident, yet wary, determined with a hint of anxiousness. She was aware of the danger, yet she was sure of her own abilities. All the qualities of a great leader were there.

"Say... Cammo?" Ahab asked as they jogged briskly along, making good time towards their target."

"What's up, shorty?"

"Do you... want to be the leader?"

They jogged in silence for a moment. Finally, she turned back to him and said:

"I'd make a pretty kick-ass leader, wouldn't I?"

He nodded and murmured assent.

"But... I don't think I could do it. Or rather, I don't want to do it. Being the leader means you have to follow the rules and correct the team, right? People are relying on you to take all the talent that everyone else has and turn it into one cohesive unit. That affinity for others... I probably don't have it."

Her voice dulled with sadness, and Ahab slowed his pace to hear her better. Her arms dropped to her side and she dropped to a walk.

"I'm really self centered, you see. I can't see when my teammates are in trouble or when they're not performing at their best. I only see me. Me and the spotlight. That's all that matters. That's why I became a Huntress, for fame."

Ahab tightened a fist unconsciously, then let it fall. He couldn't turn on her for telling the truth. Even if she told him to his face that she didn't care about her teammates. Even if she told him openly that she was the only one who mattered.

"You, on the other hand... you care about other people a lot." She turned and smiled at him, an approving grin for accomplishing what she could not. "Besides, side characters can always get a bigger following than the main character."

"At this rate, the ruins are only going to have three walls left..."

She chuckled and resumed her quick jogging. He followed swiftly, their short strides dotting the tall grass with indentations on their whole trip around.

A roar rang out in the distance, followed by an explosion.

"Seems they got in trouble."

"We took the right way, alright," snickered Cammo.

The slope of the hill fell out of view as the terrain leveled out. They had reached a point where the tall grass they had trudged through was now struggling to survive, a barren plain of dirt and rock. The plant life died away as stone paving over took it's territory, stretching like a great wall endlessly in both directions. Following the cobble path, they reached a shallow set of granite stairs, leading up to a pathetically old stone arch, barely holding its keystone in place.

"Oh."

The two stepped quietly up the steps, careful not to disturb even a pebble. Ahab stepped gingerly over a wooden slab, rotted but still mainly intact. The fallen door was engraved with angelic imagery and scenes that he could barely make out: a man and a wheelbarrow, a woman filling a vase with water. A heavy bronze cross were tossed to the side, discolored a sickly green.

The rest of the church was completely leveled.

"They weren't kidding when they said this was a ruin..." Cammo mused. Ahab nodded, dumbfounded by the strange magnitude of it. While the walls were all reduced to no more than a foot high and the benches were flung away from the center of the room, the openness made it seem less like a house of worship and more like a ballroom. The centerpiece, an enormous bronze bell, was half buried in shattered stone and rubble, and Ahab could practically hear it resonating from the impact it must have made. A section of the bell's lip was bent up, forming an opening to crawl under.

"Gimme a second." Cammo stalked up alongside the bell, then drew her Tommy gun. She kicked the bell hard, not enough to hurt her foot but enough to awaken whatever sleeping beast lay inside. When she received no response, she motioned Ahab forward.

The leader didn't notice. He was too entranced by the emptiness of the ruins. He twirled around tentatively, watching little red threads from a decaying carpet dance through the air.

"Cammo?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think... you've ever been here before?"

"I... don't know. It feels awfully familiar though."

A Beowolf growled, distracting the attention of the two. Oh yeah, that's what was missing from this scene: Grimm. The lone beast charged for the ruins, lunging over the useless barricade of pews. Cammo opened fire with her Tommy gun, spattering the monster in red pinpricks. The Beowolf shrugged off the attack and slashed at her, but its swing was blocked by another fleshy body. While the force of the blow sank its claws deep in Ahab's forearm, they were stopped short by the harpoon shaft within. The metallic clang shook the boy up and down, and he kicked from below to nail the monster straight in the jaw. As it shook off the impact, Cammo ducked around her teammate's meat shield and clamped Nemean Grin around the Beowolf's neck. One brief second was all it took to apply the trap, and the jaws would never let go without her signal. The monster struggled, faltering as her grip closed in tighter. Finally, it's neck popped, scattering rose petals everywhere.

"..."

"..."

"We should keep our guard up," Cammo said. No matter how she tried to hide it, her grin was slowly widening.

"Still, this place..." Ahab wondered, allowing his arm to heal up. As the Grimm dissolved into black smoke, Ahab wondered what he should do to atone for sullying a holy place. Pray? Clap twice and bow? Offer blood sacrifice? Maybe he could ask Quincy about his religion sometime soon...

Yes, the similarities were far too prominent. The use of the cross, just like the one on the giant's little black book. The destroyed church, the dark woods over the hill.

An explosion sounded again, this time much closer. "Oh good, they're on their way," Cammo noted.

Ahab kept mulling the situation over in his head. The bell, fallen from above to shield a poor disfigured child cowering beneath. A sign from whatever god he prayed to, to live on, to save others. Yet, looking around the church he could only think one thing.

"Hey, you see them? HEEEEEEY!" The green girl called to their partners coming over the ridge, bruised but beaming pridefully.

"The walls here were not destroyed by Grimm."

"Eh?" Cammo turned to the pensive hooded boy. "What did you say?"

"The place would be way worse for wear and scuffed up if that was the case. Looking around, it's more like a house of cards that fell down than a solid wall they had to bash their way through."

"Don't be stupid. These blocks are solid stone." Their teammates were fast approaching, Quincy swinging his hammer cheerfully. The wind carried his church hymn away.

"They could have collapsed. The architecture is probably old enough. I doubt it was handling it's own weight very well for a long time."

"So what are you suggesting?"

"I'm saying," Ahab said, keeping an eye on the incoming giant, "that the church caved in. No Grimm assistance was necessary."

Realization dawned on her face. "Wait, do you mean-"

"He did it."

"But he didn't mean to-"

"Definitely not." Ahab was speaking a lot more confidently than usual. There was a strange glint in his eye: Anger? Cammo couldn't tell. His hood was up already.

"At least, I hope not," he whispered.

"Hey guys, how'd you do over here?" Eido smiled wide before tumbling face first over the stone stairs.

"Watch your step."

"Thanks, Cammo..." the heir groaned.

"We only found one Grimm. Though I hear you guys got lucky over there," Ahab reported.

Quincy chuckled. "We encountered a few enemies."

"That was way more than a few," whined Eido. "You guys should have seen it! Swarms of them, as far as the eye could see! It was quite a sight."

_Ignore him..._ they all thought. Ahab and Cammo shot subtle glances at the giant instead. As he climbed the stairs and passed through the archway, Quincy's grin was fading.

"So this is the location," the giant mumbled. Cammo nodded.

"Well, considering how you two just cleared out a bunch of Grimm, what are we supposed to do now?" Ahab asked, ignoring the hunchback's expression of disbelief.

"We could try heading back to the forest..." Quincy suggested, pointing towards the dark woods. "The monsters appear to be coming from that direction."

"Sure. The forest. Let's get moving then." Ahab briskly hopped over the wall of rubble and planted his feet on the packed dirt, eager to leave the ruined church. Eido groaned and turned around to follow him, being far more careful with the steps this time.

"Come on." Cammo tugged on Quincy's robe sleeve, urging him along.

"You three can go ahead of me. I am slightly tired by the recent encounter."

Bullshit. Quincy never got tired.

"Sure. Don't get left behind, okay?"

"Of course."

She trotted after her teammates. Eido suddenly grabbed his sides. There was a chill gripping him again, and a dark blue aura was creeping up from behind him. The group forced themselves forward, no one commenting on the heavy crunching noises they heard, like stone on stone, grinding away into dust. The team waded back into the tall grass.

They resolved on a new meeting place later, as no one would be able to find their way back to the church again.

* * *

**Something about this place seems familiar... oh yeah, backstory!  
**

**Hope you can tolerate my writing, and thanks for reading!**


	28. Depths

Clearing out the forest was not a feasible task. The Grimm were a kind of stain on the land, so deep and black they could never be fully washed out without tearing the entire forest up with them. Team ECQA knew full well that, one way or another, the metaphorical sweater was getting dumpstered.

The mission that the team had been grudgingly assigned was to patrol the outer rim of the woods and observe Grimm activity, fighting any who wander too far from the tree line. Unfortunately for the mission, the team had weaseled/begged their way into the field for the sole purpose of letting off steam. So, rather than patrol along the more secure grasslands, Cammo led the way into the heart of the forest.

The first few encounters were small fry. A stray Ursa, a pack of Beowolves.

A mere five minutes later, they met the really big fish.

"I'm really starting to rethink the legitimacy of this plan!" Ahab called out, dodging through the trees. He could hear the trunks being ripped to shreds behind him by the carapace of the charging Deathstalker.

"What plan?" Cammo hollered back, hanging uselessly by her weapon from the monster's stinger. If her grip loosened, she would be trampled and speared straight through. From this vantage point she could only spray bullets uselessly on the creature's dense armor.

"Figures," the hooded boy muttered, and he rolled between the legs of the stationary Quincy. The giant held his ground and snapped two fully charged hammers together, bringing them down in a fraction of a second in tandem with his Semblance to drive the Deathstalker's head into the ground. Its inertia carried it forwards, stunning poor Quincy against its frontal armor and smashing another tree to splinters before it finally came to a stop.

Eido descended from the upper branches of a nearby pine, swiping Diplomatic Immunity to the side and barely parrying a razor sharp feather. The Nevermore above was turning the patch of land they stood on into an enormous pincushion with each pass.

The heir gasped for air. His white ponytail had started coming undone, silvery strands trailing behind him and making it seem as if he had run straight through a spider's web. Cammo might have been amused by this disheveled look if she was not busy dodging around streetlamp-like feathers.

She ducked backwards to safety, only to feel a hot breeze tickle her neck. Acting on instinct, she swung her gauntlet around and batted a stealthy Creep into its partner. The forest wasn't just full of titanic monstrosities, it was crawling with silent assassins. The Beowolves had begun gathering in the shadows, a pack of twenty or so. In the darkness, only the dull white of their bone spikes could provide any advance warning. Cammo reflected on this as she dove into the incoming horde.

Glancing at his scattered teammates, a heavy ball of despair formed in the pit of their leader's stomach. "Regroup!" Ahab called, but his voice was weak and the cries of Grimm were stronger. A Nevermore feather came down and he rolled to the side, nicking his shoulder against its razor point. Unfortunately, that nick was enough to knock him clean off his feet. Ahab could feel his vertebra collide with the trunk behind him one by one, a snapping sound setting his teeth on edge.

He called out again: "Team! Regroup!" It was louder this time, possibly loud enough to catch someone's attention over the clamor of battle, but Cammo and Eido had already wandered off in separate directions, beating off the hordes with their very best.

Ahab hoisted himself to his feet, ignoring the wet sound of sticky blood peeling from his shoulder. He staggered towards the unmoving Quincy and waved wildly at the Grimm. "Leave him alone!" He shouted at the smaller Creeps nibbling at the hunchback. They squawked at him, like wild dogs defending their prey. Scaly, ugly wild dogs.

He swung at them, spattering the ground with blood and extending the harpoon from his forearm. "Leave him alone!" he repeated, stabbing tentatively at one of the Creeps. The monster lunged, but he stabbed straight through its torso. Ahab gestured wildly with the impaled body of the Grimm and warded off the rest. Had the larger beasts been lured away by his partners?

There was a skittering as the Creeps escaped, and then the clearing was silent. Ahab approached his fallen comrade.

"Quincy?"

A trickle of blood flowed down the hunchback's lopsided brow. Despite his sorry state, there was something serene about his slightly furrowed sleeping face. What would happen if he leaned in a little clos-

Another feather thudded into the trunk behind Quincy, stopping a foot short of the larger boy's neck. No time to think about things like that. Where were the others at a time like this? Ahab glanced around and cupped his hands like a megaphone to call out to his partners.

His neck was nearly jolted off his body as he flew back into the dirt. Ahab tried to look down, only to realize his neck could not move. Another feather, and this one spot on. With a sigh, Ahab resigned himself to the pain. No matter how he struggled, he was still trapped.

* * *

Cammo's gauntlet sank into yet another Grimm's skull, releasing another cloud of rose petals into the air. Not missing a beat, she pulled back the same arm and collided her elbow with the neck of another monster, simultaneously gunning down several other targets with the tommy gun in her free hand. Admittedly, the ranged option had given her a fair amount of diversity in her zoning power; she kept others at bay with the hovering barrel of the firearm while smashing about the cocky few who dared to dive into close range. She'd have to give Goodwitch a violently friendly greeting when she came back. The old prude would surely despise that.

Another Beowulf rushed in, and she replied by wrapping the jaws of Nemean Grin around its faceplate and crushing. Swinging around, she swept two more Creeps off their feet and pounded a third into the underbrush. She readied her gun to unload.

The trigger clicked uselessly.

"Shit," she mumbled as the Grimm finally collapsed in on her, unafraid. With a grin, she tossed her firearm to the side and clapped her hands together, augmenting the sound with her semblance. The resulting shockwave blasted nearby enemies into the trees, filling the air with a howling chorus of lamentation. Taking advantage of the scattered confusion, she ducked aside and snatched the stock of the tommy gun, deftly sliding another drum into position. Cammo charged for an opening in the ring of opponents, smashing one of her dust rings and stunning the Grimm before leapfrogging off of a Beowolf's face.

Midair, she whirled around and proceeded to empty her ammo supply into the pack as they chased after her, dropping off like flies in the process only to be joined by more of their allies.

"Get off, get off!" She snapped another drum into her gun, rougher this time. Where were her teammates? This wasn't a time to be off on their own, this was a time to group up and exterminate. What the hell was she supposed to do if she got in a mess without her partner?

Cammo tossed out a dust ring and crunched it beneath her heel, rocketing into the upper branches of the canopy in a rush of wind. Nemean Grin clamped around the first handhold she could find, and she dangled there tentatively. The horde, seemingly bigger than it had been before, was clawing at the base of the massive tree and howling up a storm. The trunk was too smooth to climb without a substantial lunge for the lower branches, but something was bugging Cammo besides the impending death below.

_When the hell did the trees start looking like this?_

Without noticing, she had gone far deeper into the forest than she had bargained for. These imposing redwoods were worlds apart from the fuzzy pines they had been fighting around earlier. And why was it so dark? The canopy was blotting out enough sun to appear like the night sky, with only tiny pinpricks of light shining through the leaf cover like stars.

It only just struck her that it wasn't the others who had wandered off. It was her. She had abandoned them.

* * *

Eido was lost in thought.

His eidetic memory knew the way back, though his logical thinking told him the return trip was likely suicide. Hordes of Grimm do not disperse easily after they have gathered. Instead they seem to strengthen exponentially, drawn together by one common purpose of destruction and guided along the same path. This kinship like that of a hunting animal was equally present in human mobs, and could drive great change for the world if handled correctly.

He knew this.

After having escaped his pursuers, he still felt the lurking premonition that anything could happen at anytime here. Not to mention that according to his calculations he had wandered far, far from the original point where he lost track of his comrades.

He was alone.

He knew this.

A route was already mapped out in his head, circumventing the possible paths that the horde had taken. The plan was simple, and his reasoning was efficient. He could make his move at any time.

But something was nagging at the genius mind Eido was so proud of. Despite being steeled against solitude for years and well accustomed to his blindness, something about the utter silence of the forest was truly unsettling. In addition, because Grimm had no aura he wouldn't be able to notice incoming danger until he heard the rustling in the underbrush. A sense of vulnerability washed over him like the chill of the forest shade. He shivered.

What did his surroundings look like? It had been years since he concerned himself with sight, but this odd nostalgia accompanying the scent of rich earth and moss was intriguing. The only reference point he had for woods was a rather unpleasant memory, the forest where he lost his eyes. The world was probably as deliciously verdant as it was that day, light dew still lingering thanks to the deep shadows cast from above. A tittering laugh sounded from his right.

Eido gasped and whirled around, trying to spot the owner of that tiny voice. "Shit," he breathed. He had lost himself in his daydream. He, the man who prided himself in being grounded in reality at all times, had forgotten his own disability. How stupid. Eido kicked a tree trunk in frustration, at himself and his memory.

A distinct hissing sounded nearby, and the underbrush began to shatter apart. An enormous body slithered across the forest floor towards him. Two of them. Wait. Three. Three sound sources all around.

"Shit. Shit! SHIT! SHITSHITSHIT!"

He'd awakened the sleeping giants. Fuck his dreams. Screwed himself this time.

* * *

**I've been gone for so long thanks to finals week, but now I'm back! Maybe. Hopefully. Also a lot of League of Legends. I'll try to get back into my regular update schedule, like, once a week updates? Maybe? I'll try.**

**Shit's happening for team ECQA. Well, not so much the whole team. See, THIS is why team RWBY is all about teamwork.**

**Bye for now. You're wonderful. Love you guys. Have a good day 3**


	29. Fear

_Arena fighting isn't about the results. It's not about the journey either. The only thing that matters here is proving your own strength. If you win without any flair, you're a killjoy.  
_

_I'm sorry... I'll try my best next time..._

_No! You're missing the point! It's not about the effort you put in. In fact, making it seem like you're not trying hard is actually cooler! Like, 20% cooler! Then again, it'll backfire on your ratings if you lose..._

_Wait, so w-what should I do?_

_Don't think of it as fighting, kiddo! Think of it as... acting! It's not real, it's just a show!_

* * *

"It's just a show... just a show..."

Cammo chanted these words like a mantra under her breath, holding her knees close to her chest. She could just imagine Narcissus looking at her and laughing at how pathetic she looked, just like a kid.

There was no helping it. The sounds of scraping claws on bark set the hair on the back of her neck on end. Besides the mass of hot, fiery rage below, the air was deathly cold at this height. Was the sun setting? She had no way of knowing, what with this thick canopy.

No helping how she looked. It was the cold. It would only take a second for her to wipe out the monster horde. Drop a Dust ring and just go full ham on the closest target. If she jumped, it would be a cinch to escape. She had the tools. She had the experience. All she had to do was get up and do it.

Her toes curled in her boots, and she leaned over the edge of her perch to look beneath. A sea of black bristles, white bone and red eyes. If she jumped, this would all be over. She could pull off this daring maneuver. It would be an amazing tale to tell to Ruby later, how she evaded this near death scenario without even breaking a sweat. As she sat there, crafting the story she would be sharing, a cold liquid dripped down her brow and into the dip of her button nose. She tasted salt.

Cammo wasn't scared. This was a simple case of stage fright. She'd felt it before nearly every time she had a match, the anticipation of overwhelming applause. Once she got into her groove, it would be a silly memory. An experience long forgotten, a sensation she would never remember.

"It's just a show."

These Grimm were hardly a challenge. It was like staring at a group of props, or even bowling pins. They were here for her to knock down.

So why did she feel so weak?

The last vestiges of light faded from the already dark forest, and Cammo couldn't tell whether it was her or the world who blacked out first.

* * *

Fear is quite natural when faced with life threatening situations. The instinct of fear is a mental life preserver, ordering the body to escape dire circumstances as quickly as possible. In some cases, fear could push the human body to the limit and allow the accomplishment of terrific feats. To be afraid of fearsome things was in no way a weakness, but rather an evolutionary advantage over the brave and fearless.

Knowing all this, Eido still could not help but curse the sensation of fear.

He charged through the underbrush, breathing hard. The rush of serpentine bodies behind him made it seem as though a flood of flesh was splashing on his heels. His legs ached, his arms ached, his throat ached, his lungs ached. Every part of him that could ache was aching.

Fear was an acknowledgment of a stronger opponent, a challenge too great to confront. Fear was recognition of weakness.

His heart ached with disappointment. No one should be allowed to best him. No monster should make him feel this way. Fear, dreams, weakness, all these things which made him human, he wanted no part in them.

If he kept running, would he find what he was looking for? Would he find the solution to humanity?

No.

He was going backwards with every step. Embracing fear as an ally.

Eido had no need for yet another evolutionary advantage. There were other ways to rise above the present.

The King Taijitu were right on his tail. The two leading the charge were neck and neck, vying for the whole meal. Mindlessly, voraciously, brimming with lustful hunger.

It caught them off guard when he turned on his heel and knelt down, slipping beneath their bodies.

* * *

"Quincy~"

The giant's eyelids fluttered open, greeting a pink tinted sky with clear blue. He stood and stretched, forcing his shoulder into position, knocking a few Nevermore feathers out of the ground.

"What happened to the fight?" Quincy scanned the area for the source of his leader's voice.

"I don't really know, but I think it's-" A raucous coughing alerted the hunchback to the foot of a nearby pine. "I think it's just moved further into the forest."

"And where are the-" Quincy began, but recoiled at the sight. Ahab was lying back, limbs torn in several places by the impact of many spears over time. Some of his wounds had healed inconveniently, fusing his flesh around the thick, jet black shaft of the feather. The way he was impaled resulted in his body being suspended oddly above the forest floor, like a twisted game of Pick Up Sticks. The spear through his left lung was the likely culprit for his cough.

"W-where are the others?"

"They went deeper in the forest," Ahab said with a strained grin, watching Quincy's eyes widen. Poor guy, just woken up and already suffering from a second shock. "Say, can you lift me up from here? It's a bit difficult on my *cough* own."

Quincy gingerly wrapped his fingers around his leader's sides and tugged upwards, staining each feather red all the way up the shaft. Finally the last spear slid out of his back, and he brought Ahab down to the ground to heal once more.

"Thanks," he wheezed, keeling over and curling into a ball to cover the wounds on his abdomen. "Give me one moment."

"Of course."

The duo stood there for all of thirty seconds.

"Alright, I think I'm good to go."

"Let's."

They started off to confront the forest depths. Ahab looked nervously up at Quincy, trying not to make eye contact with the suddenly dead serious giant.

"Say, do you think they're okay in there without m-... us?"

"I wouldn't be too sure," he replied, and broke into a sprint.

* * *

Thrusting upwards with both weapons, Eido nailed his pursuers in the bellies. Their massive girth did not budge in the face of such an attack, but inertia carried their bodies clean over him and sent them coiling around the nearest trees for a quick rebound. The King Taijitu who had been bringing up the rear pounced straight on him, mouths wide and hissing gutturally.

This instinctive need to display dominance was their downfall. Eido threw a few hooks, deftly parrying each gaping maw to the side with a solid hit to the fangs. One of the snakes' teeth even snapped with a sickening crunch, lodging itself in the monster's gum.

Each move calculated to divert and disperse force. Due to the massive size of each Grimm, they couldn't mob him all at once with little attacks and had to resort to taking turns lunging at him. This was his best matchup.

When they attacked, he didn't flinch. His instinct was screaming for him to turn, run and keep on running forever.

This was his challenge. He could beat instinct. He could rise above the human condition.

Eido had no irrational fears. Every fear he felt was entirely respectable and understandable.

But he wasn't interested in being bound by reason.

He had said it himself.

He was a god.

Gods fear no beast.

Eido knocked the snout of another opponent to the side, burying it with a thud in the underbrush. Another rose up to standing position and shot towards him, it's fangs moving at bullet speed towards it's target. This was a deathblow, a ferryman to heaven.

Gods do not fear death.

Eido leaped into the beast's throat, knocking back it's teeth as it attempted to snap him in half. Pressing against the walls of it's gullet, he thought back to the fights he had witnessed in class. Lie Ren, Yastuhashi Daichi, Blake Belladonna. He could see their aura fluctuating, changing, doing amazing things through willpower alone. Mimicking their movements, he felt power well up in his arms, moving down into his palms and through his weapons.

It was at times like this that Eido truly cherished his eidetic memory and semblance. A godly combination.

The King Taijitu swelled and detonated out each side, blowing a hole through it's esophagus. Eido dropped to the forest floor, the corpse dissolving around him and taking flight on the wind like black rose petals. He chuckled, snapping his attention to the remaining slithering bodies.

Now the real question was, how many times could he perform the same maneuver?

* * *

"Faster!"

Quincy charged through the forest, tearing through underbrush without slowing down, uprooting small shrubs with each step. Vines tried to entangle his massive legs, but he ripped away with ease. The twin spotlights on his harness cut through the night, making him appear as if he were a car at full throttle, speeding ahead with its headlights on.

"Dammit, slow down!" Ahab called, his voice echoing after the giant. "We don't even know which way she went!"

"Follow the damage!"

Ahab pulled out his standard-issue pocket flashlight. With a quick glance around, he saw how true this statement was. The trees were marked with 3 inch claw marks and branches were freshly snapped and strewn about the forest floor everywhere they went. Just like Cammo to leave an impression.

Quincy stampeded forwards singlemindedly, low branches scraping across his tough. No time for thorns, no time for branches, no time for-

With one swing, he smashed a medium-sized oak to splinters.

No time for trees.

Out of the way, out of the way.

His partner was alone.

Out of the way, out of the way!

She didn't handle being alone well.

"Out of the way!"

There they were.

Grimm. A full horde of them, gathered at the foot of an enormous tree. They were waiting for something, watching the canopy for a meal, dressed in pigtails and overwhelming lime green. All kinds of creatures, from Beowolves to Creeps to Boarbatusks, ranging from the smallest to largest specimens the two had seen to date.

No time for Grimm.

"OUT OF THE WAY!"

"Hey, they're not going to respond..." Ahab said.

Quincy whipped out two hammers. The remaining two barrels on his back swiveled over his shoulders, practically hissing with anticipation.

The enemy turned to meet him head on.

And the sea of black exploded into red. Red dust flared, red eyes gleamed, red blood spilled. Even when Ahab's flashlight was put out, he could still see by the illumination of continuous dust explosions, bathing the battlefield in crimson light. Limbs flailed about, attached or otherwise, filling the air with the scent of massacre. Each flash of color was a slideshow of destruction.

Eventually the strobing died down. The forest was quiet again, and dark. Ahab was left wondering if anyone outside this forest had seen the light show. It was likely that no one would ever know of this occurrence.

They could only hope this was the last time.

* * *

"It's just a show, it's just a show..."

Quincy put a hand on Cammo's forehead as they ascended into the air. The airship had arrived quickly enough, but the giant didn't want to waste a second getting his partner to medical care. As she murmured in her sleep, passed out in his lap, her eyebrows scrunched together.

"Anxiety really doesn't suit her," Ahab said solemnly. The giant only nodded.

Eido stood over his teammate and sneered internally; he knew better than to let such emotions show on his face in front of Quincy. That was him just a short while ago, that was what fear sounded like. He could feel her aura coiling and churning, seeking an outlet, an escape. That was what fear felt like.

He remembered this pattern of tightening, jumbling movements. Then and there, he vowed to never display such a shameful emotion.

His ascension was just beginning.

* * *

**I'm a filthy liar. "Once a week," I said, "Regular updates," I said. Jesus.**

**Well anyway, that's the end of this mission arc. I hope you derived some enjoyment from it, and have a good day.**


	30. Leech

Cammo lifted her pencil and let it drop. _Click_. Sighing, she waited for it to stop rolling, then picked the pencil up and repeated the action.

The day after the mission, Ahab and co. returned to class. Not a day's rest for team ECQA; they couldn't be falling behind on their studies now could they? Not much had changed since the near disaster; both Ozpin and Goodwitch decided against lecturing them and Cammo eventually hobbled out of the infirmary with a shaky smile.

But students in the class had noticed the change. For one, everything was more quiet. It was like dipping one's head underwater. The usual noise they had gotten used to hearing before and after class was replaced with a muted buzz, nothing compared to the clamor from before. Even Port noticed it, commenting casually on how sullen they all were, though no one could pinpoint a cause.

Cammo felt a slight twinge in her heart when her classmates simply glossed over her. All this time she'd been trying to make herself well known, but no one remembered her once she shut up?

She smiled a bit as Pyrrha waved a hand over her shoulder in greeting. Pyrrha was the kind of person who remembered everyone's birthday, phone number and favorite color. Thought she refused to wave back, Pyrrha cocked her head and smiled back.

But the redhead wouldn't point her out to the class.

It would take minimal effort to raise her hand and call out. After all, she'd been doing the same thing for years. Wasn't standing out second nature to her?

But something seemed to weigh her arm down, and gradually she slumped over into a pill, letting her hair spill over the desk, free of the usual lime green trappings and accessories. Someone had changed her out of her clothes and put her to bed last night, and in the morning she didn't even bother putting them back on.

Spending the bare minimum of energy, as if every movement was a chore. That was how she would relax. A day off isn't too bad every once in a while.

_Why not give them what they want? __It's just a show._

She shivered. What would happen if she stuck her hand out? Would she even know what to say? Her mind, which usually came up with snappy comebacks in an instant, was dragging behind. All she could think about was lifting and dropping her pencil, making that slow, irregular clicking noise her only presence in the classroom.

* * *

The lesson was over before she knew it. She had tuned out of the class so entirely that even the final bell had gone right over her head. Sluggishly, she took a second to organize her blank notes, letting the class of potential conversationalists drain out the doorway ahead of her. She got up at the last moment to filter away like the rest of them, blending to the best of her ability into the crowd.

A rush of air kicked her brown hair into a frenzy, and the hyper energetic Professor Oobleck suddenly appeared before her.

"Ms. Deuce, a moment if you will?"

She looked around the man in front of her, checking on her teammates' status. Quincy lumbered out of the doorframe as she looked over, and Ahab did his best to appear harmless, whistling nonchalantly. She chuckled. Well, not as much a chuckle as expelling more air out of her nose than usual, but that was the gist of it.

Cammo waved them away, as if to say "Go on without me. I'll catch up." Ahab scurried off, tucking his hood in.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"I've noticed a bit of a dip in your classroom participation today. Care to explain why?" Dust, his machine gun diction was screwing with her brain. Why did he pay special attention to her today of all days?

"Uh... I guess I'm just not feeling too hot today... Professor."

"True, you do look under the weather, but that would not be what I am referring to. Allow me to ask more directly then: is there anything else you would like to talk with me about?" Straight and to the point, in record time as usual.

She took a moment to think of a plausible diversion. "Well... the dance is coming up? That might be it?" Too slow. Flimsy. Normally she would have been able to rocket into a performance without a hitch. Of course, Oobleck noticed that. She'd need better response times to compete with the school's speedster seminar... something.

_Even my alliteration is off. This sucks._

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the mission your team went on yesterday, would it?"

"... no."

"It seems your condition is worse than I thought. Any more fibbing and your pants will catch fire. Come! To my office!" He dragged her away from the doorway and in front of his desk, taking his seat opposite her. Cammo stared at Oobleck over the mound of empty coffee cups.

"I thought you had a mug."

"These are my spares. Welcome to my office!"

"Right." Cammo slouched into a wooden chair and twirled her hair around the end.

"Ms. Deuce, what happened on that mission of yours?"

"... we killed shit."

"True, true, that is the logical conclusion to an afternoon of Hunting. You all came back in one piece, which is most convenient." As per usual, Oobleck zipped around her like a fly as he rattled off syllables like a tommy gun. _I feel a migraine coming on._

"I just want to know, as a personal inquiry, if you really did come back unscathed." He moved in front of her now and leaned down, forcing her to slouch further into her seat.

"I'm fine, okay? No injuries."

"You understand what I was implying, Ms. Deuce. Is your mind intact?" He put a finger to his temple.

Cammo snapped. Furious, she pushed him off of her and jumped to her feet. He zoomed away as if nothing had happened and appeared behind his desk once more. "I'm NOT insane!"

"That's not what I was asking Ms. Deuce, but should I?"

"FUCK OFF!" She snatched an empty coffee cup and tossed it at him. He sidestepped it and let it thunk harmlessly against his bookcase. "Why should I be explaining myself to YOU?"

"Please stop making these assumptions, Ms. Deuce. You do not need to explain yourself to me. You need to explain yourself-" he said, dodging another previously caffeinated projectile, "-to your teammates."

Aw crap. He was right. And what's more, it felt as if she'd just wasted the last of her energy reserves on rage. After that furor high, she crashed, falling back into her seat. "I don't wanna. I already told them about me. They already now how broken I am."

"If they did, would this whole fiasco have occurred?"

"It was a mistake! An accident on my part! They're not to blame... I am." She grabbed the nearest coffee cup and, finding this one to be full, took a sip to calm her nerves. "I don't operate the same way they do. They're so independent, but I just can't help being needy."

"You need an audience?"

"I won't survive without other people watching my ass all the time. Every time I try to work on my own, I crash. It's been that way since I started this whole charade, even before my... dark age. I can't help but think that it might have gotten worse over time."

"Well then the solution is simple. Ask one of your teammates to stay attached to you."

"I can't do that! What if I end up dragging them down?"

Oobleck adjusted his glasses. "They're hunters-in-training, Ms. Deuce. Training to protect people, not just kill monsters. If anything, your teammates will improve."

"Sure..."

"And now you may leave." He shooed her out with one hand, the other reaching for a styrofoam cup and shaking it to test for coffee inside. "I have a veritable mountain of papers to grade and am running a bit low on caffeine. 20 minutes should do the trick."

Not one for trivialties, this professor Oobleck. Straight and to the point, in record time as usual.

* * *

Cammo never felt so disgusting. She was basically a leech, forced to attach herself to a partner and weigh them down for eternity. Her attempts to rid herself of this dependency only seemed to deepen her need, and embracing this desire threatened to do the same.

As if she could rely on anyone to carry her burdens forever. That kind of commitment didn't exist. She'd seen 'unbreakable' vows shattered like thin sheets of ice, 'immovable' objects swept thoughtlessly to the side. No one bond could stand the test of time, whether formed by family or teacher, friend or foe. Her disability forced her to choose between disappointment and depression. The more she thought about it, the more unfair it sounded. How the hell was the universe deciding how to deal out its cards? Why did Eido lose his vision? Why did Quincy lose his family? Why did Ahab lose his life over and over? Why did Cammo lose her freedom?

So her life was that of a parasite? Fine. Cammo mulled over Oobleck's suggestion as she stomped back to her dorm. To become a great Huntress; to find fame and glory; to reach the hearts of the entire human race. To accomplish any of these, she'd become the leech she needed to be. And that meant finding a host.

Who better to to carry her affliction than the partner who literally carried her?

Cammo kicked open the door to ECQA's dorm. Her teammates' gazes all swiveled towards her, widening with surprise at the suddenly cured Cammo Deuce.

"Quincy!" The giant turned to look down at his petite partner and smiled with relief. So she was okay?

"Swear to me!"

Wait, what? Quincy looked closer at her features, confused by how she cringed. Something was still ailing her, not depression but something harder to define. She was speaking, but her words weren't entirely her own. She forced out the rest of her sentence.

"Swear to me that you'll stay by my side!"

Ahab's eyebrows shot up.

"...Excuse me?"

"Don't apologize! Just say that you won't leave me again, no matter what happens!"

"Oh, I see!" Quincy recomposed himself quickly, remembering the mission. "I am deeply sorry for that time!"

"Don't apologize, dammit! Just swear to me already!" Prolonging this embarrassing situation was making blood rush to Cammo's cheeks.

Quincy sputtered a bit, then bowed down understandingly. She must have a good reason for this; he couldn't imagine his partner doing anything she didn't want to. "I... I swear?" He tried and failed to think of something more appropriate to say.

She nodded approvingly. "And you'll have to do everything I say!" she added.

"I suppose I can do that. I am your partner, after all."

"Good..." she said, relieved. "At ease then!"

And with that, she fled the room. Ahab stared after her, his mouth agape at the conversation that had just taken place.

"D-d-did that mean what I think it meant?"

Eido waggled his eyebrows. "Whatever it was, it sounds pretty kinky."

"I will not even justify that statement with a response," Quincy said as Ahab began to freak out in place. His stuttering was starting to get a bit out of hand, but he shut up promptly as Cammo poked her head through the doorway again.

"Oi, what did I just say?" she shouted at Quincy. The giant took a second before comprehension dawned on his face, then lifted himself out of his chair and walked out the door after her.

"Mhm, that's what I thought," Cammo sneered. She gave one last, slightly bashful look to her teammates before closing the door behind her.

* * *

**As usual, I am late and without direction. Hope this story has still got your interest! Have a super awesome fantastic day and leave a review if you're SUPER FRUSTRATED with the plot I'm following right now; I'm always looking for suggestions for improvement!**


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